Breckenridge and Butterfill (of Warwick, like Grice) on Grice

by JLS
for the GC

Grice was born in Warwick.
Grice was born in Warwickshire.
Grice was born in Birmingham.
Grice was born in Stafford.
Grice was born in Staffordshire.
Grice was born in Harborne.
Grice was born in Harborne, formerly Stafforshire (now Warwickshire).
Grice was born in the Black Country.
Etc.


Grice on Meaning

"This topic is about the idea that “linguistic meaning can be studied by relating
it to the psychological states of language users such as intention and belief”.

7.1 Literal meaning, implicature and metaphor

Pre-lecture reading: Martinich (1998); Grice (1967 [1989])

Grice’s account of conversational implicature is, in part, an account of how to
distinguish in an utterance between that which makes the utterance true or
false (it’s truth-condition) and further things which the utterance is intended to
achieve. It is an attempt to explain how different utterances of the same (or
similar) sentences can have the same truth-conditions despite being used to
communicate quite different things on different occasions. It is widely held
that we can only have a systematic theory of meaning for that which is
common to all the various uses of an utterance, simply because there is no
limit to what a sentence can be used to convey.
How does this relate to metaphorical uses of language? Perhaps, as Searle
claims,

“[t]he problem of explaining how metaphors work is a special case of
the general problem of explaining how speaker meaning and sentence or
word meaning come apart.” (Searle 1979, 92)

“One important motive in Grice’s treatment of conversational implicature was
the same as my motive in saying what I did about metaphor: to separate
those aspects of communication which can be treated only informally from
those aspects which can be given formal semantic treatment, namely, the
relatively literal which underlies all the rest. … what Grice did in that direction
… seems to me to be one of the classical defenses of the possibility of a
serious theory of meaning”
---- Davidson, “Reply to Oliver Scholz”, 173).

7.2 Paul Grice on Meaning and Intention
Pre-lecture reading: Grice (1957)
This lectures sketches and considers Grice’s analysis of meaning.
Essay question for Topic 7 (choose one)

“How do the intentions of the author of a linguistic act allow us to distinguish
between what her words convey and what she intends to convey by using
them?” (Davidson 1992: 300)

How could someone use an account of conversational implicature to explain
metaphor? Are there any objections to such an explanation?
“It’s better to meet the love of your life and get married than to get married
and meet the love of your life.” Could this be literally true? Is it a problem for
Grice’s account of conversational implicature?

Reading for Topic 7

Avramides, Anita (born USA) (1989), Meaning and Mind. London: MIT Press.

Bennett, Jonathan (born New Zealand)(1976), Linguistic Behaviour. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.

Blackburn, S. W. (1998), "Communication and Intention", in E. Craig (ed.)
Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. London: Routledge.

Carston, Robyn (born New Zealand) (1998), "Implicature, Explicature and Truth-Theoretic
Semantics", in R. Kempson (ed.) Mental Representations. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.

Davidson, Donald (born USA) (1978 [1984]), "What Metaphors Mean", in Inquiries into
Truth and Interpretation. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Davidson
(1984a)
--- (1992), "Locating Literary Language", in Reed-Dasenbrock (ed.) Literary
Theory After Davidson. Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University
Press.

Davies, M. K. (born England, educated Australia) (1981), Meaning, quantification, necessity : themes in
philosophical logic. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
--- (1983), "Idiom and Metaphor". Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 83,
pp. 67-86.

Dummett, M. A. E. (1993), "Language and Communication", in The seas of
language. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Grice, H. P. (born Harborne, an affluent suburb of Stafforshire, greater Brum) (1957), "Meaning". The Philosophical Review, 66(3), pp. 377-388.
(Reprinted in Studies in the Way of Words, Cambridge Mass.: Harvard
Univeristy Press, 1989, 22-40) Retrieved 16 December 2004 from
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0031-
8108%28195707%2966%3A3%3C377%3AM%3E2.0.CO%3B2-P
--- (1967 [1989]), "Logic and Conversation", in Studies in the Way of Words.
Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Originally published in Donald
Davidson and Gilbert Harman (eds.) The Logic of Grammar.
--- (1969), "Utterer's Meaning and Intention". The Philosophical Review, 78(2),
pp. 147-177. (Reprinted in Studies in the Way of Words, Cambridge
Mass.: Harvard Univeristy Press, 1989, 22-40) Retrieved 16 December
2004 from http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0031-
8108%28196904%2978%3A2%3C147%3AUMAI%3E2.0.CO%3B2-2
--- (1989), Studies in the way of words. Cambridge, Mass ; London: Harvard
University Press.

Kittay, Eva Feder (1987), Metaphor. Oxford: Clarendon.

Martinich, A. (born Russia) (1998), "Metaphor", in E. Craig (ed.) Routledge Encyclopedia of
Philosophy. London: Routledge.
Neale, Stephen (1992), "Paul Grice and the Philosophy of Language".
Linguistics and Philosophy, 15, pp. 509-559.
Schiffer, Stephen R. (born Atlantic City, USA) (1987), Remnants of meaning. Cambridge, Mass ;
London: MIT Press.
Searle, John R. (Born USA) (1979), "Metaphor", in A. Ortney (ed.) Metaphor and Thought.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.