[lit-ideas] If It Tastes Like Lighter Fluid
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2014 19:04:13 -0400 (EDT)
From Woody Allen's "Bullets over Broadway" -- in film with Diane West. As
her character offers a drink to the male lead, and says, casually: "If it
tastes like lighter fluid, it's because it's lighter fluid."
The line resembles the implicature in film "Million Dollar Baby"
BOXER: Puajj. This tastes like bleach!
COACH: It taskes like bleach because it's bleach. And bleach tastes like
bleach.
It may be argued that the implicature of 'x is like y' (in "it tastes like
lighter fluid") is "x is not y" -- but it seems different with a verb of
'perception' like 'taste' (cfr. "if it looks like"). Witters knew this, but
Grice thought that what Witters knew was wrong.
Cheers,
Speranza
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