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

Grice reads Aristotle's Metaphysics, and finds it 'understandable.'



Consider the adjective 'French' (which Aristotle does NOT consider) -- as it occurs in phrases such as



Michel Foucault is a French citizen.
H. P. Grice is not a French citizen

Michel Foucault once wrote a nice French poem.
J. O. Urmson once wrote a nice French essay on pragmatics. 

Michel Foucault was a French professor.
Michel Foucault is a French professor.
Michel Foucault is a French professor of philosophy.


The following features are perhaps significant.


The appearance of the adjective 'French' (or Byzantine, as the case might be -- cfr. "I'm feeling French tonight") in these phrases is what Grice calls 'adjunctive' rather than 'conjunctive,' or 'attributive.' 

A French poem is not necessarily something which combines the separate
features of being a poem and being French, as a tall philosopher would simply
combine the features of being tall and of being a philosopher.


'French' in 'French poem,' occurs  _adverbially_.

'French citizen' _standardly_ means "citizen of France."

'French poem' _standardly_ means "poem in French".

But it is a _mistake_ to suppose that this fact _implies_ that there is this or that _meaning_ (or, worse, this or that Fregeian _sense_) of the expression 'French'.


In any case, only METAPHORICALLY can we say that 'French' means or has sense. An utterer MEANS. An utterer MAKES SENSE.

Cf. R. Paul's doubts about capitalizing 'major.'


'French' means, and figuratively at that, only one thing, viz. 'of or pertaining to
France.'

And 'English'  only means 'of or pertaining to
England.'

'French' may be what Grice (unfollowing his remarks on "The general theory of context") call 'context-sensitive'.

One might indeed
say, if you like, that while 'French' means -- or 'means' only this or that, or that its only sense is this or that, 'French' still means, again figuratively, a VARIETY of things.

'French' means-in-context "of or pertaining to France.

Symbolise that as

Expression E 'means'-in-context that p.

Expression E 'means-in-context C2 that p2.


"Relative to Context C1 'French' means 'of France'; as in the phrase
'French citizen.'

Relative to context C2, 'French' means 'in the
French language, as in the phrase, 'French poem'."

-- whereas 'history' does not behave,  like this. 

Whether the focal item is a universal or a particular is, contra Aristotle, quite irrelevant
to the question of what this or that related adjective "means," or what its sense is. 

The medical art is no more what an utterer means when he utters the adjective 'medical', as is 'France' what an utterer means by the adjective 'French'.


While the attachment of this or that
context may suggest an interpretation in context of this or that expression as uttered by the utterer U, it need not be the
case that such a suggestion is indefeasible.

It might be e.g. that 'French poem' would have to mean, "poem
composed in French", unless there were counter indications, that brings the utterer and the addressee to a different context C3.

In which case,
perhaps what the utterer means by 'French poem' is 'poem composed by a French competitor' in this or that 
competition.

For  'French professor' there would be two obvious things an utterer might mean.

"Disambiguation" will depend on the wider  expression-context
or in the situtational context attaching to the this or that circumstance of utterance.