[lit-ideas] For All I Know
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 1 May 2013 08:42:56 -0400 (EDT)
Susan Swan Mura, “Licensing Violations: Allegedly Legitimate Violations to
Grice's Conversational Principle,” in Conversational Strategy.
For the use of 'insofar as I know" as otiose on the face of Grice's
conversational "maxims". Or not.
----
In a message dated 4/30/2013 12:51:23 P.M. UTC-02,
donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx writes:
"As far as I know..." is a standard English phrase where 'know' is used in
the first person present tense in a sense that does not logically preclude
the possibility that my first person 'knowledge' may be mistaken or untrue
- ... in other words, my use of 'know' even in the first person present
tense may be understood in the sense of my being sincere and rational in my
belief and not in the sense that I am an idiot with no critical sense of my
own fallibility.
And then there's
"for all I know"
I read from:
http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=22340&langid=14
This phrase normally introduces an extreme, unlikely or unexpected
situation that is nevertheless possible.
E.g.:
- He wears a ring, but he may be single, for all I know.
- The man I met on the beach yesterday seemed friendly, but he could be a
thief, for all I know.
I think in this case it is obvious that "for all I know" implicates "which
may be nil".
Under _some_ reading of "as far as I know", or better, "in so far as I
know" a similar disimplicature (or strictly, implicature cancellation) _seems_
available (or not).
For as Ursula S. noted:
>since 'farther' is reserved for actual distance
and 'further' for metaphorical distance, shouldn't it be
'as fur as I know'?
Yes.
The _distance_ is never expanded -- i.e. the implicature allows that no
distance is covered at all, minimising to the extreme nil degree the width of
the idiomatic cliché, "in so far as I know".
Note that as H. P. Grice and G. Mikes realise, Oxonians _hardly_ use
'know'.
"And about knowledge. An English girl, of course, would be able to learn
just a little more about, let us say, geography. But it is just not 'chic' to
know whether Budapest is the capital of Roumania, Hungary or Bulgaria. And
if she happens to know that Budapest is the capital of Roumania, she
should at least be perplexed if Bucharest is mentioned suddenly. It is so much
nicer to ask, when someone speaks of Barbados, Banska Bystrica or Fiji: 'Oh
those little islands. . . . Are they British?' (They usually are.)."
George Mikes: "On not knowing anything":
begin quoted text:
---
One thing you must learn in England is that you must never really learn
anything.
You may hold opinions; as long as you are not too dogmatic about them; but
it is just bad form to know something.
You may think that two and two make four; you may 'rather suspect' it; but
you must not go further than that.
Yes and no are about the two rudest words in the language.
One evening recently I was dining with several people.
Someone, a man called Trevor, suddenly paused in his remarks and asked in a
reflective voice:
"Oh, I mean that large island off Africa; You know, near Tanganyika. What
is it called?"
Our hostess replied chattily:
"I'm afraid I have no idea."
"No good asking me, my dear."
She looked at one of her guests: "I think Evelyn might".
Evelyn was born and brought up in Tanganyika but she shook her head firmly:
"I can't remember at the moment. Perhaps Sir Robert?"
Sir Robert was British Resident in Zanzibar, the place in question, for
twenty-seven years but he, too, shook his head with grim determination:
"It escapes me too."
"These peculiar African names."
"I know it is called something or other. It may come back to me presently."
Mr Trevor, the original enquirer, was growing irritated.
"The wretched place is quite near Dar es Salaam. It is called, wa minute"
I saw the name was on the tip of his tongue. I tried to be helpful.
"Isn't it called Zan"
One or two murderous glances made me shut up.
I meant to put it in question form only but as that would have involved
uttering the name sought for, it would not do.
The word stuck in my throat. I went on in the same pensive tone:
"I mean; What I mean was, isn't it Czechoslovakia?"
The Vice-President of one of our geographical societies shook his head
sadly.
"I don't think so; I can't be sure, of course; But I shouldn't think so."
Mr Trevor was almost desperate.
"Just south of the equator. It sounds something like..."
But he could not produce the word.
Then a benevolent looking elderly gentleman, with a white goatee beard
smiled pleasantly at Trevor and told him in a confident, guttural voice:
"Ziss islant iss kolt Zsantsibar, yes?"
There was deadly, hostile silence in the room.
Then a retired colonel on my left leaned forward and whispered into my ear:
"Once a German always a German."
The bishop on my right nodded grimly:
"And they're surprised if we're prejudiced against them."
-----end quoted text.
Cheers,
Speranza
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