Grice on * and psi

WoW: VI, p. 118

is clear that Grice has in mind

*

to range over modes: indicative (/-) and imperative (!-).

And he associates

*

then with a psychological attitude which he symbolises with the Greek letter

psi.

----


This is in section (b) of WoW:118:

""*" is a dummy mood [mode] indicator, distinct from specific mood-indicators like '/-' (indicative or assertive) or "!" (imperative). More precisely, one may thimk of a schema "Jones meant that *p" as yielding a full ENGLISH sentence after TWO TRANSFORMATIONAL steps [weak nod to Chomsky, jocular]: (i) replace "*" by a specific mood-indicator and replace "p" by an indicative sentence. One might thus get to "Jones meant that /- Smith will go home" or "Jones meant that ! Smith will go home". (ii) Replace the sequence following the word 'that' by an appropriate clause in indirect speech) in accordance with rules specified in a linguistic theory [or one's good intuitions as to how things sound]. One might thus get to "Jones meant that Smith will go home" and "Jones meant that Smith is to go home".

In those considerations we see that Grice always kept in mind non-indicative (imperatival) moves of force "!" in his schemata for meaning -- and stuff.

Therefore, the ranges of central speech acts will include things like ordering, which may yet not be alethic (or said to be alethic).