T. Fjeld was discussing ‘symptoms’ and ‘systems,’which got me into thinking
about ‘mean.’
Grice had a MA Lit Hum which means that Greek wassecond nature to him. Yet, he
was also an Englishman (“and, therefore, brave.”).Getting a Lit. Hum. meant at
that time that Grice was qualified to teach
(a) a) Classics
(b) b) Philosophy
Since he later became a Fellow at St. John’s, he optedto teach philosophy and
became the “Tutor in Philosophy” at St. John’s. St.John’s only has two tutors –
the other during Grice’s time there, was J. D.Mabbott, a Scot.
So, Grice started to see philosophy as separable from ‘theclassics.’ When in
1948 he presented his essay on ‘Meaning,’ he was interestedin how Englishmen
used ‘mean.’ Had he taught classics, he would never haveventured into these
Anglo-Saxonisms, but stuck with ‘significare,’ are such.The only essay Grice
quotes in “Meaning” is Stevenson’s “Ethics and Language,”one of which examples
is:
"a reduced temperature 'means' convalescence"(Stevenson, p. 38).
Grice would possibly rephrase that: “That Maryhas a reduced temperature means
that Mary is convalescent,” or something. I.e. “means”must be followed by a
full proposition, of the “that”-form.
In any case, it is VERY INTERESTING thatStevenson is using ‘scare quotes’ here.
A reduced temperature, strictly, doesnot mean ANYTHING, since, in Anglo-Saxon,
‘mean’ is cognate with ‘mind,’ andsurely a reduced temperature cannot have a
‘mind’ (never mind ‘mean’ this or that).
If we DO use ‘mean’ LOOSELY as applied to thingslike reduced temperatures is
because we are not good at classics!
By the same token, we may say that the barometremeans this or that. We mean
‘mean’: strictly, the barometre ‘means’ that p.
Fjeld comments:
“[O]ne is distracted by Moominpappa's observation, when informed by
Moomintrollthat Snufkin has migrated South due to the upcoming snowy season,
that,"Uh, snow? Let's go and read the barometre." PossibleImplicature: Let's
not be so loose about our prophesies.”
When one reads thebarometre, one is looking for ‘signs’.
A reduced temperature isa ‘sign’ of convalescence. In this case, we do not NEED
to use ‘scare quotes,’because ‘sign’ is neutral enough (Grice hated the lexeme
‘sign’ – “Words, forall that Locke wrote, are NOT signs.”)
At this point, Grice wasfeeling like teaching his tuttees the rudiments of
Peirce’s semiotics (on whichStevenson bases his theories), and Grice ends up
simplifying Perice’s ‘krypto-technicisms’so much that his tuttees had all the
time in the world to engage in what Griceloved most: a good game of good
cricket!
Cheers,
Speranza
REFERENCES
Fjeld, T. "Symptoms and Systems," THIS LIST.
