[lit-ideas] Re: Grice's Implicature
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2012 22:12:30 -0400 (EDT)
Comments on Witters as cited by R. Paul:
"When we say: "Every word in language signifies something"
we have so far said nothing whatever; unless we have explained
exactly what distinction we wish to make."
Part of the problem may be the Latinate, 'signify'. It is easier if we
stick to Anglo-Saxon shorter, 'mean'. Plus, it's people who mean, not 'every
word in the language', etc.
"(It might be, of course, that
we wanted to distinguish the words of language (8) from words 'without
meaning' such as occur in Lewis Carroll's poems, or words like
"Lilliburlero" in songs.)"
Here the English refer to this as 'nonsense' as in the very meaningful
poetry by Edward Lear -- "The Owl and the Pussycat". I'm not so sure that
"Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay" (one of my favourite Victorian songs) is meaningless in
the ways Witters suggests. Whereas "Lilliburlero" found sense in Gay's
Beggar's Opera.
Witters is thinking of Jabberwocky, or the Hunting of the Snark ("The Snark
was a Boojum, you see").
"Imagine someone's saying: "All tools serve to modify something.
Thus the hammer modifies the position of the nail, the saw the
shape of the board, and so on."—And what is modified by the rule, the
glue-pot, the nails?—"Our knowledge of a thing's length, the temperature
of the glue, and the solidity of the box."——Would anything be gained by
this assimilation of expressions?—...The word "to signify" is perhaps used
in the most straightforward
way when the object signified is marked with the sign."
In Greek, there is no -fy. It's just 'semein', where a 'semeion' is a sign
for something. The addition of -fy, in Latin (as in Witters's 'signify')
complicates the grammar slightly.
Dark clouds signify rain, say.
---
Witters:
"Suppose
that the tools A uses in building bear certain marks. When A shews his
assistant such a mark, he brings the tool that has that mark on it.
It is in this and more or less similar ways that a name means and is
given to a thing."
Note that in the above, Witters changes from the Latinate "signify" to the
Anglo-Saxon "mean" but this may be Anscombe's editorial.
"—It will often prove useful in philosophy to say to
ourselves: naming something is like attaching a label to a thing.
...One thinks that learning language consists in giving names to
objects. Viz, to human beings, to shapes, to colours, to pains, to
moods, to numbers, etc. . To repeat—naming is something like
attaching a label to a thing. One can say that this is preparatory to
the use of a word. But what is it a preparation _for_?
..."We name things and then we can talk about them: can refer
to them in talk."—As if what we did next were given with the mere
act of naming. As if there were only one thing called "talking about a
thing". Whereas in fact we do the most various things with our
sentences. Think of exclamations alone, with their completely different
functions.
Water!"
----
"Water" is indeed a name. A common name. Apparently, it is the word that
Helen Keller first learned.
----
Putnam wrote extensively on water, which he calls "H20" as opposed to
Twater whose symbol is XYZ.
---
"Away!
Ow!"
These are NOT names, granted.
"Help!" -- this can be a name ("he never offers much help"). Here it used
as a verb, in the imperative, though, and thus not as what the Greeks would
call an onoma but a rhema. Recall Plato's Cratylus. The onoma-rhema
distinction possibly escaped Witters. By the time of Hellenistic and Roman
philosophy/grammar/rhetoric, there were 10 parts of speech already identified.
PRO-Nomen like "I" included.
---
"Fine!
No!
'Are you inclined still to call these words "names of objects"?"
Well, 'water' seems like a name of a substance -- a 'kind' word, I think
they call it. A 'natural kind'. In "Introduction to the philosophy of
language," B. J. Harrison notes that while 'snow' can be the word for a
natural
kind, it would be odd to decide to call snow "Arthur".
---
"In languages (2) and (8) there was no such thing as asking
something's name. This, with its correlate, ostensive definition, is, we
might say, a language-game on its own. That is really to say: we are
brought up, trained, to ask: "What is that called?"—upon which the
name is given."
Well, strictly, most peasants (if that's the word --it's used by W. H.
Hudson) distinguish between a 'name' and what a thing is called.
Hudson recalls walking in Sussex. "What's the name of that hill?" "Dunno
sir, we call it "Strawberry Hill"". And so on.
Witters diminishes this important English distinction between 'a name' and
what a thing is called. Lewis Carroll, who Witters dismisses as
nonsensical, has a full passage on that. The name of the song that the White
Knight
sings to Alice. It was even formalised by Cohen, an American logician.
Witters:
"And there is also a language-game of inventing a name
for something, and hence of saying, "This is ... ." and then using the
new name. (Thus, for example, children give names to their dolls
and then talk about them and to them. Think in this connexion how
singular is the use of a person's name to call him!)"
---- While a child can call his doll by any name he wishes, it is still a
different exercise for a child to create a new "noun". Note that 'onoma' in
Greek is cognate with English "name" AND "noun". Same interesting
connection in Latin with nomen. Only in English, due to William the Conqueror,
such
an affinity is broken, when 'name' is regarded as too rough, and 'noun' is
preferred.
We are offered this as exegesis of what Witters says about
"I"
"this"
and
"here" -- not in that order.
He has said that "I" is not a name. It is still a referential expression,
and Witters is concerned, but won't say, with what the referential
expression refers to. While "I" is not a name, or a noun, it is a pro-noun, and
Witters should have elaborated on that. For surely a pro-noun and a noun work
similarly.
Ditto for pro-verbs.
"Here" Witters dismisses too abruptly; and what he says about 'this' is
almost comical (provided you enjoy Austrian humour). Etc.
Cheers,
Speranza
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