The misuses of pragmatic

Speranza

Quinion:

WORDS OF THE YEAR This week, it was the turn of publisher Merriam-
Webster to pick one. It chose "pragmatic". A curious choice, you
might think, since it doesn't directly apply to any event of 2011.
The publisher selected it because it was the word most often looked
up in its online dictionary during the year. There were two peaks,
one in the weeks before the US Congress voted in August to increase
the nation's debt ceiling, and again as its supercommittee tried to
craft deficit-cutting measures this autumn. John Morse, the firm's
president, suggested it sparked dictionary users' interest because
it captures the current American mood of encouraging practicality
over frivolity. Most people who recorded a reason for looking it up
said that they wanted to confirm that it was meant positively.
WORLD WIDE WORDS ISSUE 767 Saturday 17 December 2011
Author/editor: Michael Quinion US advisory editor: Julane Marx
ISSN 1470-1448


"WORDS OF THE YEAR."

"This week, it was the turn of publisher Merriam-
Webster to pick one."

"It chose "pragmatic". A curious choice, you
might think, since it doesn't directly apply to any event of 2011."

I _might_ think. But knowing Grice and his dismissal of the 'direct', I rather go _IN_direct.

"The publisher selected it because it was the word most often looked
up in its online dictionary during the year."

And who uses a paper dictionary anymore? Grice disliked computers. They didn't recognise for him, not just 'pirot', but 'sticky wicket'.

"There were two peaks,
one in the weeks before the US Congress voted in August to increase
the nation's debt ceiling, and again as its supercommittee tried to
craft deficit-cutting measures this autumn."

----- A third peak was NOT when Speranza checked the use of 'pragmatic inference' as an early use by Grice in the Retrospective Epilogue.

"John Morse, the firm's
president, suggested it sparked dictionary users' interest because
it captures the current American mood of encouraging practicality
over frivolity."

--- rather than the Morrisian trilogy: syntactics, semantics, pragmatics -- on which Grice trades.

"Most people who recorded a reason for looking it up
said that they wanted to confirm that it was meant positively."

The implicature is that they didn't. I.e. they didn't confirm that.

Grice used 'pragmatic' when he HAD to. He makes a not-to-fine distinction between 'logical' inference, and 'pragmatic' inference, which most radical pragmaticists disagree with. The entry in the OED for 'pragmatic' is so confusing I love it.

----

Other than that Grice used 'semantic' (on occasion).

When he does use 'pragmatic inference' versus 'logical inference' (in Retrospective Epilogue) the rationale is so Griceian (as I prefer to spell the surname-derived adjective) that it hurts, delightfully!

----

Check 'pragmatic' with the annals of the club. Or not!


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WORLD WIDE WORDS ISSUE 767 Saturday 17 December 2011
Author/editor: Michael Quinion US advisory editor: Julane Marx
ISSN 1470-1448