Griceian implicatures

Speranza

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English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it? If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? Have you noticed that we talk about certain things only when they are absent? Have you ever seen a horsefull carriage or a strapfull gown? Met a sung hero or experienced requited love? Have you ever run into someone who was combobulated, gruntled, ruly or peccable? And where are all those people who ARE spring chickens or who would actually hurt a fly? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which an alarm goes off by going on.

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Commentary:

"English is a crazy language."

Strictly, it's people who are crazy. As Lord Russell said, philosophers should not stick with the silly things silly people say."

"There is no egg in eggplant"

---- etymologically, there is?

"nor ham in hamburger";

-- The 'haem' in hamburg is not cognate with 'ham'?

"neither apple nor pine in pineapple".

--- Pinapple is not native to England.

"English muffins weren't invented in England"

--- but they were not invented in Japan, were they?

"or French fries in France".

A "French fry" should be added to Grice's discussion of "French" in "Multiplicity" (PPQ):

"French poem" --

"Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat".

There should be an implicature somewhere.

"We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig."

Grice considers that 'disc' should still be called 'disc' even if come to be made square (WoW:III, Logic and Conversation).

"And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?"

Oddly, and sadly, playwrights write.

"If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese?"

Grice knew of Boolos's attempt to quantify the plural in "Logic of plurality". In Symbols,

Some goose is nice --- may implicate MANY. The 'number' is not a category of logical importance, pre-Boolosian logicians thought.

"If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?"

Good paradox.

"If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane."

Vide Grice on hyperbole.

"In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?"

"Your feet smell." requires a subtle analysis alla Grice, "Some remarks about the senses".

"You look beautiful" is short for "I look at you and I _SEE_ you as beautiful.

Similarly, 'your smelly foot' requires an analysis as "_I_ smell your foot". But feet indeed have no noses.

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"How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? Have you noticed that we talk about certain things only when they are absent? Have you ever seen a horsefull carriage or a strapfull gown? Met a sung hero or experienced requited love?"

Cfr. "How I met my wife". This is the phenomenon of what Austin and Grice called 'trouser-word'.

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"Have you ever run into someone who was combobulated, gruntled, ruly or peccable? And where are all those people who ARE spring chickens or who would actually hurt a fly?"

Again, trouser-word.

"You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down,"

Grice on preposition in "Actions and events": the action is 'burn'; the rest is emphatic.

"in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which an alarm goes off by going on."

And so on.