H. P. Grice on Aristotle on the multiplicity of being

"Consider the adjective 'French" -- as it occurs in the phrases."



French citizen

French poem

French professor


"The following feateures are perhaps significant."

"The appearance of the adjective 'French' in these phrases is what I might
call 'adjunctive' rather than 'conjunctive' (or 'attributive')."

"A French poem is not, as I see it, something which combines the separate
features of being a poem and being French, as a fat philosopher would simply
combine the features of being fat and of being a philosopher [such as Sir Karl
Popper. -- JLS]."

"'French', here, occurs, so to speak, _adverbially_."

"The phrase 'French citizen' _standardly_ means "citizen of France", while
the phrase 'French poem' _standardly_ means "poem in French"."

"But it would be a _mistake_ to suppose that this fact _implies_ that there
are two (indeed more than two) _meanings_ (or _senses_) of the word 'French'.
[cf. R. Paul's doubts about capitalizing 'major' -- JLS]."

"The word 'French' has only _one_ meaning: namely, 'of or pertaining to
France' [and 'English' has only _one_ meaning: namely, 'of or pertaining to
England -- JLS]."

"It will, however, be what I might call 'context-sensitive'. We might indeed
say, if you like, that while 'French' has only _one_ meaning or sense, it
has a variety of _meanings-in-context_."

"Relative to one context, 'French' means 'of France'; as in the phrase
'French citizen', whereas relative to another context, 'French' means 'in the
French language, as in the phrase, 'French poem'."

-- whereas 'history' does not behave, _contra_ McEvoy, like this. JLS

"Whether the focal item is a universal or a particular is quite irrelevant
to the question of the _meaning_ of the related adjective."

"The medical art is no more the meaning of the adjective 'medical', as
France is the meaning of the adjective 'French'.

"As a concluding observation, I may remark that while the attachment of the
context may suggest an interpretation in context of a word, it need not be the
case that such a suggestion is indefeasible."

"It might be for instance that 'French poem' would have to mean, "poem
composed in French", unless there were counter indications; in which case,
perhaps the phrase might mean 'poem composed by a French competitor' in some
competition."

"For the prhase 'French professor' there wold be two obvious meanings in
context; and disambiguation would have to depend on a wider linguistic context
or on the circumstances of utterance."