Grice on "I emoticon heart you"

L. Thomas, who teaches philo at Syracuse University, in online essay on Animals writes:

"What makes language so important?"

"The answer,following Grice -- and his student, Thomas Nagel, in the latter's The Possibility of Altruism -- is that
language makes it possible for creatures to indicate publicly and
explicitly that they simultaneously take both their future selves
seriously and the selves of others equally seriously."

"This verbal affirmation that human beings can give to one another, which often
takes the form of promise-making, is of extraordinary significance
(see Grice 1989)."

"Marriage vows, which are a form promise-making,
are surely the quintessential example of this simultaneity."

"This is
perhaps part of the reason why witnessing these vows is so very
moving although we already know the words and, in some instances,
have heard them on many occasions."

"For there is no equal to
witnessing that moment of the public simultaneous affirmation of the
“self” and the “other” unfold."

"Language, of course, is not the only way
in which human beings can affirm themselves and one another."

"Just
so, nothing whatsoever replaces the public affirmation of both that
comes with language."

"What we all know is that no matter how
intently and movingly two human beings look at one another face-toface,
the utterance of the words “I love you” makes an utterly nontrivial
difference."