Grice in the Inner City

Playing the Dozens -- With Grice.

When Grice was at Berkeley, there was this normative in Oakland to the effect that "she don't know nothing" (ebonic) was NOT a breach of Grice, "Do not say what you lack evidence for". Or words.

Consider,

"Your mother has so many crabs she walks sideways."

-- In Grice's parlance,

By uttering (i) above,

U means that
[A(addresse)'s] mother has so many crabs
she walks sideways.

"mother-f*cker" involves a different narrowing anaphora. Surely it seems to mean,

You make love to your own mother.

that is involved, and not just, You make love to any old mother. But why?

So, let's playing the Dozens with Grice.

I read online, at http://www.online-magazine.com/snaps.htm, that


"the expression "playing the dozens" means to taunt another person by
taunting, kidding, "jiving," teasing or insulting their family"

if you have any.

Motivated by Kramer's 'insults' -- i.e his attempt at a pragmatics of insults in his "Grice's polytheism" I am motivated to retrieve these notes which I had posted elsewhere, to little avail. This online source continues:

"in essence, to use "snaps." This "gaming" has deep roots in the humour,
personality, and social relationships of Black Americans. Across the coutry
there are many names for "playing the dozens", such as
"capping",
"cracking",
"bagging",
"dissing",
"hiking",
"joning",
"ranking",
"ribbing",
"serving",
"signifying",
"slipping",
"sounding", and
"snapping".

"While the names vary, the rules of the game remain the same. Playing the
dozens is _more_ than a game of fun -- it is a battle for respect. It is an
exhibition of emotional strength and verbal agility, a confrontation of
wits instead of fists. The dozens is a war of words -- perhaps the best
type of war there is. This verbal tradition combines elements of boxing,
chess, and poetry. In a contest demanding the poise and power of a boxer,
the aim is not just to win but to deliver a knockout. Fought before a
crowd, the verbal pugilist wants not only his opponent but all who witness
to think twice about confronting him or her again. Like chess, playing the
dozens requires a strategy. To win a battle, you must stay two or three
snaps ahead of your opponent. Even as you are being attacked, you should be
setting up your COUNTER-snaps. Should I say something about his Fayva
shoes? Or perhaps attack his fat sister? I'll save my best shot for his
Kmart cologne. This is the type of strategic thinking that makes a master
snapper. Painting humorous pictures of your opponent through words is key
to becoming a dozens laureate. "You're so fat, your blood type is Ragu" is
an actual snap fired in a legendary battle at New York's Frederick Douglass
Projects. The picture created by this verbal H-bomb still haunts the victim
to this day. Snaps have to be delivered properly in order to work
effectively. The setup -- "Your mother is so fat..." -- is a classic
example of how to cock the hammer for the ensuing snap --" ... she broke
her arm and gravy poured out." Like the firing of an individual snap, the
delivery of a series of snaps requires a rhythm. You might loft your
initial snaps slowly, then fire the successive barrage with increasing
speed. Members of the audience serve a number of fundamental roles in
playing the dozens. First, they are needed to witness the event. Playing
the dozens without an audience is like launching fireworks in daylight.
Second, they are responsible for recording the verbal history of the
battle, and then for spreading it throughout the community. Third, they
fuel the conflict by responding to the snaps, and it is their reaction that
determines the ultimate winner."

Hardly the candour of Grice or Leech when the postulate, 'among the various maxims conversationalists may be held to follow, on occasion" "such as 'be polite' and other maxims of 'moral' or 'aesthetic' character".

So are Black Americans _flouting_ or merely _refuting_ Grice?

The following interview should elucidate us:

* Q: How do you get the audience on your side?
A: Drawing the crowd's laughter at your opponent is what wins battles.
To elicit laughter, you must *recognise* what makes the audience laugh.
First, your snaps must be clever, original, and appear to have been crafted
solely for your opponent. Second, a snap that touches a shared reality is a
good bet. E.g. "Your family is so poor, your father's face is on food
stamps." Third, after snapping, you should occasionally eye the crowd.
This will keep them laughing at your snaps, in fear of becoming a target if
they don't.

* Q: Why is "your mother" so often the subject of snaps?
A: Like the proverbial "Mom" tattooed on a sailor's arm, there is nothing
more dear to a man than his mother. Mother snaps go to the soft underbelly
of your opponent. In the early days of snapping, mother jokes were the big
guns. Their deployment was saved as a last resort -- one that often
elicited the response, "Don't talk about my mother!". Nowadays, "your
mother" is a stylized opening of most snaps. In fact, they are also
commonly referred to as "mother jokes".

* Q: Where is the dozens played?
A: In playgrounds, on subways, at pizza parlours, in the classroom, on
street corners, in locker rooms -- anywhere peers hang out. A game of the
dozens can be sparked by contact on the court or words exchanged on the
street. Increasingly, you can see the dozens played in comedy clubs as
comedians defend themselves against audience hecklers. Some comedians get
more laughs from snapping on the audience than from their routines.

* Q: What is the distance that I should maintain between myself and my
opponent?
A: You may get as close as you want to your opponent without making
physical contact. Spatial relations are an important aspect of the game.
You can use distance to heighten the effect of a snap. A snap punctuated by
a hip shake, fluttering eyes, or lewd hand motion needs space in order for
the audience to appreciate the effect of your body language. When the snap
is composed of words alone, closing in on your opponent may enhance the
power of the attack.

* Q: Do women play the dozens?
A: Historically, the dozens has been a male experience, but women are
playing in increasing numbers. Fortunately for men, most battles remain
within the sexes.

* Q: What do you wear when playing the dozens?
A: It is smart to wear clothes that do not give ammunition to your
opponent. Battling while wearing a strange outfit could be a death wish. If
you sense that you might be drawn into the dozens on any given day, be
prepared not only with your wit but with your wardrobe.

* Q: Do you need a loud voice to win a game?
A: No. What is important is that you be aware of what kind of voice you
have, and use it to your advantage. If you are soft-spoken, do not try to
yell, the audience will misinterpret the straining of your voice as a sign
that your opponent is landing his snaps effectively. Instead, speak softly
and carry a big snap. In short, the dozens is a thinking person's game.
However, the tradition lives on because the game has soul. Ultimately,
mastery of the dozens demands that you go to that place where humour,
anger, joy, and pain all reside. It is from that cauldron that the greatest
snaps are born and delivered.

Some samples of Snaps.

* "Stupid & Ugly" Snaps:

You're so stupid, it takes you an hour to cook Minute rice.
You're so dumb, you think Taco Bell is a Mexican phone company.
Your girlfriend is so stupid, the first time she used
a v- she cracked her two front teeth.
You're so dumb, if you spoke your mind you'd be speechless.
Your sister is so stupid, she went to the baker for a yeast infection.
You're so dumb, you failed Romper Room.
Your mother is so dumb, she couldn't pass a blood test.
You're so stupid, you asked for a price check at a 99¢ store.
You were so ugly at birth, your parents named you "[expletive deleted]
Happens".
Your brother is so ugly, when he sits in the sand the cat tries to bury him.
Your girlfriend is so ugly, you gave her a hickey and got a mouthful of fur.
You're so ugly, you couldn't get laid if you were a brick.

* "Body" Snaps:

Your [expletive deleted] are so small, you have to tattoo "front" on your
chest.
Your mother has one leg longer than the other and they call her Hip-Hop.
Your sister is so skinny, her bra fits better backward.
Your sister is so skinny, she could win the Miss Somalia pageant.
Your mother is so crossed-eyed, she thinks her only child is a twin.
Your girlfriend has so much hair on her chest, her tits look like coconuts.
Your teeth have more tartar then Red Lobster.
Your sister is so bucktoothed, she can eat corn on the cob through a fence.
You're so skinny, Sally Struthers sends you food.
Your mother is so fat, she broke her arm and gravy poured out.
Your father is so fat that when he rubs his thighs together, I swear I
smell bacon.
Your mother is so fat, she's got more chins than Chinatown.
Your mother is so fat, her blood type is Ragu.
Your mother is so fat, when she dances the band skips.

* "Old" & "Smelly" Snaps:

Your breath smells like Cheez Doodles--light on the cheese and heavy on the
doo-doo.
Your breath smells so bad, people on the phone hang up.
Your mother is so old, she was a waitress at the Last Supper.
Your grandmother is so old, she wrote the foreword to the Bible.
Your mother is so old, she knew Burger King when he was just a prince.
Your mother is so old, her Social Security number is in Roman numerals.
Your mother is so old, her Social Security number is 1.

* "Poor" Snaps:

Your family is so poor, your mother calls TV dinner trays her good china.
Your parents are so poor, they got married for the rice.
Your car is so old, they stole the Club and left the car.

* "Sex" Snaps:

I heard you were getting sex all the time until your wrist got arthritis.
Your father is like cement--it takes him two days to get hard.
Your mother is like a doorknob because everyone takes a turn.
The only difference between your girlfriend and
a subway is that everybody hasn't ridden a subway.
When I see a Christmas card that says "ho-ho-ho," I know to address it to
your sister.
Your mother has so many crabs she walks sideways.
You're so horny, the last time you felt a breast it came out of a KFC bucket.

Time to quote some Leech:

"If we acknowledge the existence of an irony principle, we should also
acknowledge other 'higher-order principle' which has the opposite effect.
While irony is an apparently friendly way of being offensive
(mock-politeness), the type of verbal behaviour known as 'banter' is an
offensive way of being friendly (mock-impoliteness). ... The Banter
Principle, as we may call it, is clearly of minor importance compared with
other rhetorical principles ... But it is manifested in a great deal of causal linguistic conversation, particularly among young people.
(A ritualised form of banter is the activity of 'sounding' (a ceremonial
exchange of insults) practiced in the black community of New York, as
studied by W Labov, "Rules for Ritual Insults". This language game depends
for its effect on the understanding that the allegations made by each party
are recognised as untrue, and therefore on the fact that they cannot be
mistaken for real insults). In a game of chess, one person may say jokingly
to another:
"What a mean cowardly trick!"
referring to a particular clever gambit. Or two friends may greet one
another with remarks such as
"Here comes trouble!" or
"Look what the cat's brought in!"
This principle may be expressed as follows: In order to show solidarity
with A, say something which is i. obviously untrue, and ii. obviously
impolite to A. Like irony, banter must be clearly recognised as unserious.
Since overpoliteness ... can have the effect of signifying superiority or
ironic distance, UNDERpoliteness can have the opposite effect of
establishing or maintaining a bond of familiarity. The reason is this. A
low value on the scales of authority and social distance correlates with a
low position on the scale of politeness; i.e. the more intimate the
relationship, the less important it is to be polite. hence lack of
politeness in itself can become a sign of intimacy; and hence, the ability
to the impolite to someone in jest helps to establish and maintain such a
familiar relation-ship. The implicature derived from the Banter Principle
is just the opposite of that derived from the Irony Principle: What U says
is impolite to A and is clearly untrue. Therefore, what U really _means_ is
polite to A and true. We might go so far as to call the Banter Principle a
"_third_ order" principle, because it may itself exploit irony. Banter
could be described as mock-irony in cases like
"A fine frined YOU are!"
said jokingly (say) to a partner who has given away an advantage in a card
game. The intepretation of this utterance requires a double reversal of
values:
i. You are a fine friend. (face-value).
ii. By which I mean that you are NOT a fine friend (Irony Principle).
iii. But actually, you ARE my friend, and to show it, I am being impolite
to you (Banter Principle)."

As I learned from T. Shippey elsewhere (I often contribute to ANSAX-L, the list for Anglo-Saxon England, kept by Shippey):

The name of the game was 'flyte':

"Parks is well aware, it should be said, of the notion of "ludic flyting,"
citing the modern teenage practice of "playing the dozens," and noting
acutely the example of

_The Owl and the Nightingale_,

where there is an element of truth in what the disputants say, but where nevertheless the basic activity of the disputing birds is


"And either seide of otheres cust
That alre worste that hi wuste."
("And each said of the other's quality the very worst
that she knew how to.")

http://members.aol.com/ENVOIjrnl2/HTML/Shippey_4_1.html (Review of PARKS).

One quote in the OED under 'banter' should please Leech:

"To talk of .. Maxims ...
[and of Principle. JLS]
Is to be ... thought a
Banterer."

as says E. Walker in the Epictetus Mor. 1692 (lxvii).

For Leech,

"In order to show solidarity with A [addressee], say
something which is
i. obviously untrue, and
ii. obviously impolite to A."

For Leech, 'banter' gets technically _analysed_, as per the two clauses above, in terms of (we may say) "QUALITY" -- Grice's

"Try to make your contribution one that is true
-- do not say what you believe to be false" --

_AND_ "Be polite".


Leech's "banter principe" thus relies on both the cooperative principle
(and thus on quality) _and_ politeness.

Only for Grice, again, this is not CONVERSATIONAL:

"There are, of course, all sorts of
_other_ maxims (aesthetic, social, or
moral in character), such as 'Be polite,'
that are normally observed by participants
in talk exchanges, and these may _also_
generate nonconventional implicatures."
WoW.

But such maxims, such as 'be polite', would, Grice is clear about this, and I follow, NOT pertain to the 'goals' of communication/conversation he regarded as 'central' (mutual influencing, that is)(but why?) -- being, rather, thingies that merely do with saving your face (as Goffman would put it).

"Banter" and this displeases Speranza has "etym. unk.". I am a sceptic, and I distrust "etym. knowns", too. I find it terrible on the part of a lexicographer, that he would care to let us know when something is unknown. Liar! Surely we can invent!

In any case, the word, or its tr., was not unknown to Aristotle, who refers to the 'banter' of Aristophanes, or to Cicero.

In English, the noun, 'banter' was treated as "slang" by Jonathan Swift in 1688. In his 'Apology' to _A Tale of a Tub_ (1710), he says that 'banter'

"was first borrowed from the bullies in White Friars,
then fell among the footmen, and at last retired
to the pedants".

In _The Tatler_ No. 230, he classes it with "bamboozle", "country put", and
"kidney", as a word "invented by some pretty Fellows" and "now struggling
for the Vogue."

The earliest cites include: * 1690 John Locke,
An Essay Concerning Humane Undersanding III. ix. Sect.7:
"He that first brought the word "banter"
in use, put together as he thought fit,
those ideas he made it stand for."

This is an excellent quote for Leech is no Lockean there. He thinks he CAN analyse 'banter' alla Grice and win our respect! (And he does!).

* 1710 SWIFT Tatler No. 230 P 7:

"I have done my utmost for some years past to
stop the Progress of Mobb and Banter."

* 1722 WODROW Corr. (1843) II. 659

"Such plain raillery, that unless I should
learn banter and Billingsgate, which I still
thought below a historian, there is no
answering it."

The OED2 fails to note a point by C. Onions in _The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology -- viz the earliest cite ever: Pepys 1667

banter: ridicule good-humouredly;
also sb. XVII (the vb. is used by
Pepys, 'Diary', 24 Dec. 1667). Of unkn.
origin; its introduction and vogue are
referred to by Locke ('An Essay
Concerning Human Understanding', III ix
s. 7) and Swift ('Tale of a Tub, Apol.',
and 'Tatler' No. 230).]

Now to the
"Signification(s)" -- pedant! -- according to the OED2

1. 1.

Wanton nonsense talked in ridicule of a subject or person.

2. Hence: humorous ridicule generally

3. good-humoured raillery, pleasantry.

Cites:

* 1702 Eng. Theophrast. 232:

"The ordinary reasons of War and Peace,
are very little better than Banter and Paradox."

* 1705 S. WHATELY in Perry Hist. Coll. Amer. Col. Ch. I. 172:

"I know no better way of answering bombast,
than by banter."

* 1710 SWIFT T. Tub (1760) Apol. 11

"Peter's Banter (as he calls it in his
Alsatia phrase) upon transubstantiation."

* 1844 DICKENS Mar. Chuz. (C.D. ed.) 249

"She took it for banter, and giggled
excessively."

* 1880 L. STEPHEN Pope v. 113

"Gay had an illimitable flow of
good-tempered banter.

2. an given _instance_ of such ridicule, a merry jest.

Cites:

* 1700 Ch. Eng. Loyalty in Somers Tracts II. 562
"'Tis such a Jest, such a Banter, to say,
we did take up Arms, but we did not kill him:
Bless us, kill our King, we wou'd not have
hurt a Hair of his Head!"

* 1759 DILWORTH Pope 80:
"Satires on the nobility of both sexes,
banters upon good authors."

* 1822 W. IRVING Braceb. Hall xvii. 147
"The general had received all her approaches with
a banter."

3. a matter of ridicule or jest.
Cite:
* 1719 D'URFEY Pills (1872) I. 167:
"Your zeal's a Banter to all men of Sense."

4. (U.S.) A challenge to a race, shooting-match, etc.
Cites:
* 1835 LONGSTREET Georgia Scenes 26
"No, said Peter, you made the banter, now
make your pass."
* 1848 in BARTLETT Dict. Amer.
* 1861 WINTHROP John Brent (1883) ii. 16
"I'm goan to make yer a fair banter."
* 1872 SCHELE DE VERE Americanisms 439
"We had a fine banter, but the match was
postponed till spring."

Qua verb:
1. 1. To make fun of (a person).
2. To hold up to ridicule, 'roast'.
3. To jest at, rally, 'chaff', of good-humoured raillery.

Cites:
* 1676 D'URFEY Mad. Fickle v. i. (1677) 50
"Banter him, banter him, Toby. 'Tis
a conceited old Scarab, and will yield
us excellent sport."
* 1741 RICHARDSON Pamela (1824) I. 112
"You delight to banter your poor servant,
said I."
* 1824 W. IRVING T. Trav. I. 91
"Hag-ridden by my own fancy all night,
and then bantered on my haggard looks
the next day."
* 1865 CARLYLE Fredk. Gt. IX. xx. vi. 116
"Poor Quintus was bantered about it,
all his life after, by this merciless King."

2. To ridicule, make a jest of (a thing).
Cites:
* 1704 W. PERRY Hist. Coll. Amer. Col. Ch. I. 180
"Turns his Pulpit to a Stage,
And banters reformation."
* 1754 CHATHAM Lett. Nephew iv. 24
"If they banter your regularity, order,
and love of study, banter in return their
neglect of them."

3. 1. To impose upon (a person), originally in jest
2. to delude, cheat, trick, bamboozle.
Cites:
* 1688 VILLIERS (Dk. Buckhm.) Confer. (1775) 174
"'Tis impossible, that all my senses
should be banter'd and cheated."
* 1710 Select. Harl. Misc. (1793) 561
"There was no bantering the commissioners
named in the bill, because they knew
them to be men of sense, honour, and courage."
* 1722 DE FOE Moll. Fl. (1840) 60
"We diverted ourselves with bantering several
poor scholars, with hopes of being at least his
lordship's chaplain."
* 1815 SCOTT Guy M. li,
"Somebody had been bantering him with
an imposition."

4. "to banter out of": to do out of by banter.
Cites:
* 1687 T. BROWN Saints in Upr. Wks. 1730 I. 74
"To banter folks out of their senses."
* 1721 AMHERST Terrae Fil. xxxvii. 195
"We will not be banter'd out of it
by false parallels."

5. absol. or intr. usages:
Cites:
* 1688 SHADWELL Sqr. Alsatia I. i. 15
"He shall cut a sham, or banter with the
best wit or poet of em all."
* 1707 FARQUHAR Beaux' Strat. v. iii. 63
"He fights, loves, and banters, all in a Breath."
* 1865 GROTE Plato I. vii. 291
"His..homely vein of illustration seemed
to favour the supposition that he was bantering."

6. (U.S.) To challenge, defy, to a race, match, etc.
Cites:
* 1810 F. CUMING Sk. Tour Western Country 135
"Two hunters..bantered each other
to go out and kill a deer."
* 1834 CARRUTHERS Kentuckian in N.Y. I. 183,
"I was thinking of walking out into the
country and bantering somebody for a
footrace."
* 1836 D. CROCKETT Exploits in Texas 83
"The black-leg set to work with his thimble
again, and bantered me to bet."
* 1848 in BARTLETT Dict. Amer. 1860 Knickerbocker Aug. LVI. 221
"The farmer again bantered him to buy his berries."
* 1872 E. EGGLESTON End of World xxvi. 177
"The cards were put face down, and the
company was bantered to bet the wine."
* 1902 HARBEN Abner Daniel 163
"Colonel Barclay has..bantered me for a trade time an' again."

"banterer"

1. 1. One who turns things into ridicule.
2. One who indulges in good-humoured jest or raillery.
Cites:
* 1678 WOOD Life 6 Sept. (D.)
"The banterers of Oxford (a set of scholars so called,
some M.A.), who make it their employment to talk
at a venture, lye and prate what nonsense they please;
if they see a man talk seriously, they talk
floridly nonsense, and care not what he says."
* 1691 WOOD Ath. Oxon. I./834
"He being a reputed Banterer, I could never believe
him."
* 1692 E. WALKER Epictetus' Mor. lxvii,
"Amongst rude Ignorants..To talk of Precepts, Maxims,
and of Rules, Is to be laugh'd at, thought a
Banterer."
* 1706 COLLIER Refl. Ridic. 130
"Profess'd Banterers chuse rather to
disoblige their best Friends, than to lose
the opportunity of speaking their Jest."
* 1847 H. GREVILLE Leaves fr. Diary 205
"Amusing, but too much of a banterer to
please me."

2. One who imposes on, or bamboozles.
Cites:
* 1709 STEELE Tatler No. 12 P 1
"Gamesters, banterers, biters..are, in their
several species, the modern men of wit."
* 1712 ARBUTHNOT John Bull (1727) 58
"A sort of fellows, they call banterers and
bamboozlers, that play such tricks."
* 1849 MACAULAY Hist. Eng. I. iii. 369
"An excellent subject for the operations of
swindlers and banterers."

But banter is _too_ 'cute'. Surely dozener sounds ... better? What we need, as Kramer notes, is the pragmatics of 'insults' 'comme il faut'. Etc.

Refs:

GRICE, Studies in the way of words.
ABRAHAMS R. Playing the dozens. Jrl of American Folklore 75
Talking Black. Rowley, MA: Newbury House Publishers.
KOCHMAN T. The boundary between play and nonplay in black verbal dueling.
Language in Society 12
LABOV William. Rules for Ritual Insults.
Language in the Inner City: Studies in the Black English
Vernacular, Chap. 8. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
MITCHELL-KERNAN C. Language behavior in a Black urban community.
Ph.D. dissertation. University of California at Berkeley.
Signifying and marking: Two Afro-American speech acts.
In J Gumperz & D Hymes, eds.,
Directions in sociolinguistics. New York: Blackwell.
MORGAN M. The Africanness of counterlanguage among Afro-Americans.
In S. Mufwene, ed., Africanisms in Afro-American language varieties:
Athens: University of Georgia.
In their 1998 book African American English
(Mufwene, Rickford, Bailey & Baugh, eds), Morgan
gives a very useful contextualization and theorization
of some related ways of speaking, "More than a
mood or an attitude: Discourse and verbal genres
in African-American culture". She discusses at
least SOUNDIN'/SIGNIFYIN', READIN', and INSTIGATIN',
as well as the DOZENS, in terms of directness and intentionality.
PATRICK P. AAVE Website.
SMITHERMAN G. "If I'm Lyin', I'm Flyin' ". Introduction to The Art of the
Snap.
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/bibliogs/dozens.html

Etc.