[lit-ideas] Re: "No offence meant", "None taken": the implicature

  • From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2007 18:50:43 EDT

Further to P. Stone's analysis of 
 
      "No offence,  but..."
 
Some quotes from the OED for this hateful phrase below. It's  good to know 
your enemy, as the Germans say.
 
Cheers,
JL
 
 
1616  SHAKESPEARE
 
Antony & Cleopatra (1623) II. v. 100 
 
"Take no offence, that I would not offend  you."
 
Well, if I am right, SHE *cannot* take offence unless HE MEANS  offense (This 
is discussed ad nauseam by Strawson, in "Freedom and  Resentment")
 
 
 
1712 J. ADDISON Spectator No. 267 ¶8 
 
Pleasing the most delicate Reader, without  giving Offence to the most 
scrupulous. 
 
--- He WAS a flop, as possibly your 'friend' is. 
 
 
1749 H. FIELDING Tom Jones vi, 
 
‘No offence, I hope; but pray what sort of a  gentleman is the devil?’. 
 
Must say I *loved* this. It reminds me of those Victorian  conversations with 
vicars in gardens with cucumber sandwiches. 
 
Tom Jones's question, perhaps rhetorical, is interesting in  that he's 
'punning' or playing with the PREsupposition that the devil is a  gentleman.
 
Cfr.  Have you stopped beating your wife?
 
-- or in Mediaeval Logic, "Have you stopped eating  iron?"
              "Tu non cessas edere ferrum"
 
 
 
1829  GRIFFIN  Collegians II. xvii. 37 
 
‘Is poor Dalton really dead?’ 
 
‘He is, sir. I have already said it.’
 
 ‘No offence my boy. I only asked, because if he be..it  is a sign that he 
never will die again.’ 
 
-- I too like this, especially for the use of 'really' which is a rather  
vacuous adverb anyway. Incidentally, for CHRIST (author of THE CULT OF THE  
PHONEIX, the act referred to in the cult is "DEATH" -- the ultimate sacrifice  
and 
it's a good point that you only die once."
 
 
. 1866 G MACDONALD Ann. Quiet  Neighbourhood (1878) xii. 234 
 
As I never took offence, the offence I gave was  easily got rid of. 
 
A conundrum.
 
 1948 Times  Lit. Suppl. 9 Oct. 569/3 
 
‘Native’ is a good word that may not now be  employed without giving deep 
offence. 
 
Just superficial -- which is all we need -- Ah to be a Victorian and have  an 
Empire to visit -- full of well-educated, English-speaking 'natives' -- with  
an accent, no doubt. Indeed, in "The Story of English", the authors recall 
that  in British Raj, to have too good of an English accent was enough to lose 
your  job at the English Club -- Servants were _supposed_ to have an 
ungrammatical  dialect. I can see the point, no offence meant. 
 
1973 R. BUSBY  Pattern  of Violence ii. 24 
 
Be better when I'm out of this piss  Be bno offence, gents. 
 
I like this too, because I generally like the use of 'gent'. 
 
 
. 2001 Times 7 Mar.  I. 4/4 
 
The BBC said that the show was jokey and not  intended to give offence, but 
apologised if it had done so.
 
Well, this brings us into topics that M. A. E. Dummett, the  Wykeham 
professor of logic at Oxford, has understood in terms of "conditional  
performatives", 
and Austin as 'biscuit conditional' (If you are hungry, there  are biscuits 
in the cupboard). Rephrase the 2001 quote:
 
"The show is jokey -- not intended to give offence. If it has  done so, I 
apologise"
 
            The  Director
              BBC.
 
Simplify to:
 
        "No offense meant,  but if offense taken, I apologize!"
 
What a vastness (of ...) the English language is! "Seas of  language" indeed, 
as Dummett's book is titled. 
 
Cheers,
 
JL



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