Dummett reads Grice's festschrift

Speranza

-- and comments on Davidson's piece, therein, "A nice derangement of epitaphs". K. Green, of Monash, Australia, writes:

"Davidson has argued that the phenomenon of malapropism shows that languages thought of as social entities cannot be prior in the account of communication."

"This may be taken to imply that Dummett's belief, that language is prior in the account of thought, cannot be retained."

Green goes on to "criticise the argument that takes Davidson from malapropism to the denial of the priority of language in the account of communication."

Green argues, "against Davidson, that the distinction between word meaning and what speakers mean by words, used by Davidson to account for metaphor, suffices to account for malapropism."

"The reasons for the failure of Davidson's argument are used to throw light on what is meant by the priority of language over thought, and to argue that the priority thesis is ambiguous."

Alas, Dummett only complicated things, charmingly!

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