[lit-ideas] Grice on "Unavoidable" vs. "Inevitable"

From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Tue, 30 Apr 2013 23:30:17 -0400 (EDT)
In a message dated 4/30/2013 3:52:55 P.M.  UTC-02, profdritchie@xxxxxxxxx 
writes:
"Ulster-Scottish links  The  nearness of the Scottish coast has meant that 
there are strong and unavoidable  cultural links between the people of the 
perth Antrim coast and western  Scotland.  Just listen to the north Antrim 
dialects.  Scotland takes  its name from a warring tribe of north Irish sea 
raiders, the Scotti (c.490  AD)."
No doubt Mr. Grice has much to say about the use here of "unavoidable."   

----
 
Indeed. It seems to trigger the wrong implicature (or the right one,  
depending on your point of view of course).
 
Grice proposes we compare:
 
i. It is inevitable that p.
ii. It is unavoidable that p.
 
"I would say," Grice does say, "that "inevitable" is slightly more formal  
than 'unavoidable', but then my father was hardly formal and he never said  
'inevitable'"
 
"On top of that, 'inevitable' is borrowed as a unit from the Latin  
Language, that we learn at school. "Unavoidable", rather, is formed in our  
English 
vernacular."
 
"On top of that, I would add that there are nuances -- or 'implicatures',  
as I prefer -- of a consequence that occurs after – “inevitable punishment”
,  “inevitable result”."
 
"By contrast, "unavoidable" has some nuance -- or implicature -- of an  
existing circumstance only – “I was unavoidably detained.” – without there  
necessarily being a cause."
 
"Unless you _see_ a cause everywhere -- as Home didn't". ("If David Home's  
analysis of 'cause' were true, then we would need to say that, since  
Decapitation was the cause of Charles I's death, then, Charles's decapitation  
willed his death -- which is absurd.")
 
"On top of that -- "unavoidable" has the interesting, if perplexing,  
unless hardly irritating nuance (or implicature) of the modal periphrasis:  “
could not have happened any other way, even if circumstances were different”,  
while "inevitable" merely (merely?) connotes “given circumstances, this is 
the  necessary result.” (Again, David Home who does not judge 'necessary' to 
be  necessary, may feel bound to disagree)".
 
"To prove the correctness of my view, I invite you to compare “the disaster 
 was inevitable” (implicating “sooner or later the disaster would happen 
(because  they didn’t prepare)” with “the disaster was merely unavoidable”, 
which can  only disimplicate “even if they had prepared, the disaster would 
have  happened”"
 
"I won't expect you will be able to maintain the implicatures in _all_  
contexts, so feel free to use 'unavoidable' when you mean 'inevitable' -- and  
vice versa."
 
"It may clarify things if we deduce that 'inevitable', but NOT  
'unavoidable' is often (if not always, even by careful speakers) used with a  
negative 
connotation -- or again implicature, but then again it may be used with  a 
positive or neutral sense of fate, as in “Given our preparations, our victory 
 was inevitable.” in which case *unavoidable is not acceptable (or 
inevitable) --  and should be avoided."
 
Or not.

Cheers,

Speranza
 
 
 
 
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[lit-ideas] Grice on "Unavoidable" vs. "Inevitable"

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