Reading between the lines

Stojanovic at

http://jeannicod.ccsd.cnrs.fr/docs/00/32/61/40/TXT/contextualism_literalism_relativism.txt

Footnote:

"In other words, literalists hold that speakers often mistake what is conveyed for what is said (on this distinction, see Grice 1989)".

A distinction often ignored by Austin, and never recognised by Witters, so what can you expect!

---- (Just joking). Grice joked that Austin and Witters had problems with speaker (or utterer) versus expression 'implication'. Or something.

It's odd that literalism should blame speakers (or utterers) for their mistakes. What's next? Enough of a reason for a Griceian (or Grice) to think and (know) literalism wrong!

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People overuse 'literalism'. There's no 'litera' in Conversation, no? Plus, 'reading between the lines', I found out, originally meant what students did back in the boarding schools like the one Grice attended (Clifton in Bristol). They read between the lines and thus translated to English what they should have decoded in the original Greek. Those books were called 'intralineal' and were forbidden at Clifton!