Grice WoW:VI on 'central' speech acts

On p. 121 of WoW:

"to specify conditions which will be satisfied

ONLY BY A LIMITED RANGE OF SPEECH-ACTS,

the members of which will therefore be
stamped as specially

----------- CENTRAL or fundamental."

---

Grice uses, for some reason, the letter "Y" to signify this central-meaning thing:


-----

"By uttering x, U has explicitly communicated
that *p [where * allows for imperatival version]
if

U has Y-ed that *p"

----

I.e.

U has stated that p.

U has ordered that p. (That the door be closed).

----


----

He notes that

U Y-ed that p.

needs to be explicated in terms of either utterer's meaning

"or in terms of some important

elements involved in the alrady

provided definition of occasion-meaning."

Why the caveat?

Simply enough:

indicative mode -- assertion -- related to U's belief that p.

imperative mode -- order ------ related to U's desire that p.

There's no need to go into the details that occasion-meaning involves (the three clauses: U exhibits psychological attitude psi; U exhibits that via a Griceian reflective intention of a higher order; and U does not intend any element to stand 'covert' -- it should all be in the open -- the 'anti-sneak' clause).

Just correlating the modes with a type of psychological attitude and an adverbial modification should do.

The difference between

"request"

and

"order".

For example. Schiffer ("Meaning") deals with this. It all boils down to the second-clause: the reasons that U displays. In the case of an order, it is U's authority; in the case of a request it is U's respect for the addressee's own decision to do stuff -- and so on.

---


If "Y-ing" Grice dubs prior,

there are Z-ing acts which Grice dubs, appropriately enough,

"posterior" (WoW:122).

----


Close the door. Moreover, lock it!

It is raining. Moreover, it is pouring.

Grice writes that 'moreover' is NOT a central speech act. It does not indicate a central speech act.

It indicates rather a noncentral, peripheral, posterior act of 'adding'.

The 'adding' is thus neutral with respect to the force at the first-floor level.

He wants to say that you haven't _SAID_ that you added. You just _did_.

----

"the meaning of 'moreover' would be linked with the speech-act of adding, the performance of which would require the performance of one or another of the central speech acts."

----

For surely, it would be otiose to add add to additions. You add to central speech acts.

"He just added."

-- doesn't ring a good bell.

"He added that she was not just poor, but honest".

----

"He added, 'honest' -- to the claim previously made that Mary was poor".

---


If Grice uses "Y" to symbolise

central speech acts -- like stating
------------------------ (linked to 'believing' or judging)
----------------------- and ordering
------------------------- (linked to 'willing')

he uses

"Z-ing" to symbolise those posterior speech acts which we need to be aware of if we are into 'conventional' implicature -- where 'conventional' is a misnomer.

---