[lit-ideas] A Wanderer in a Liverpudlian Borough
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 30 Jun 2012 12:01:50 -0400 (EDT)
-- Edim's Borough -- it reeks?
The Limits of London, the Limits of Language
In a message dated 6/25/2012 6:48:35 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
rpaul@xxxxxxxx quotes Witters from section 18.
"Do NOT be troubled", Witters therapeutically comforts his overconcerned
pupil,
"by the fact that [some] 'languages' ... consist only of orders."
"If you want to say that this shews them to be incomplete, ask yourself
whether our language is complete.
"[And ask yourself whether your language, English] was so before the
symbolism of chemistry and the notation of the infinitesimal calculus were
incorporated in it.
"For these are, so to speak, suburbs of our language."
---- cfr. "The West End".
------
Oddly he would say that in Cambridge -- how many suburbs has Cambridge
have? Cfr. "The suburbs of Oxford", on which Grice never spent much time (he
lived in one, though, but which connected nicely, bike-riding distance, with
his office at St. John's).
"And how many houses or streets does it take before a town begins to be a
town?"
---- Well, a town ceases to be a town and becomes a city (for the English
don't care for cathedral-less towns) once it has a cathedral. The Romans
never made this distinction for two reasons:
--- they were 'heathen', so no cathedrals, thank you, we are heathens.
--- the word 'town' being Germanic they did not use, and preferred the
cognate of present Italian word 'città'.
Witters, now placed as an urban planner, goes on:
English:
"can be seen as an ancient city".
Oddly I would say that LATIN can be seen as an ancient city. Italian can be
seen as not as ancient a city.
"a maze of little streets and squares, of old and new houses, and of
houses with additions from various periods."
MY Point would be that if we speak "London" and "Greater London" (I once
researched this) you are in trouble. London has been changing boundaries
(Grenze).
Originally, it was part of Middle Sex -- i.e. The Middle Saxony.
And so it was part of a 'shyre'. But now, London is no longer in Middlesex
-- and so on.
---
Witters:
"and this surrounded by a multitude of new boroughs with straight regular
streets and uniform houses."
The mixed metaphor gets killed by Witters. For if a town is like a language
(or vice versa -- Grice is never clear about metaphor: You are the cream
in my coffee, the cream in my coffe is you), then the boroughs which are
OUTSIDE the 'town' pose a problem.
Same with "England" and "Great Britain". I think it is G. Mykes who says
that when Brits (some) use "England" they mean "Britain" and vice versa.
Seeing that Witters uses 'borough' the same applies to New York --
Oficially, there are FIVE boroughs. The Hamptons, while in New York STATE, do
not
count.
YET, I found that that the implicature, in Grice's example:
A: He doesn't seem to have a girlfriend these days.
B: He's been paying a lots of visits to New York recently.
---- (Grice, delivered in Harvard).
the impicature seems to be: "Manhattan". He's been paying a lots of visits
to Manhattan recently. M. Dascal suggests that the implicature is: "and
that's where the prostitutes are". (Grice, reticent as he can be, fails to
gloss it out).
Cheers,
Speranza
--- How _Greater_ can Manchester be (before it becomes a Liverpudlian
borough?
-------------------- Speranza, "The Pink Book" (being reflections on Grice,
"Some like Witters; but Moore's MY man".
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