[lit-ideas] Re: White's Implicature
- From: "" <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> (Redacted sender "jlsperanza" for DMARC)
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 9 Sep 2017 15:28:28 -0400
You don’t say.
Well, one might just as well say that there is something Strunkian about Grice.
Grice was born in 1913; Strunk was born in 1869.
Strunk’s “Elements of Style” came out in 1918, when Grice was five years old –
having _hardly_ acquired the elements of the style for which he woud become
infamous.
Curiously, Strunk studied at the Sorbonne in Paris – for which reason the
French find that his “Elements of Style” is “Gallic in nature.”
Unlike Grice, who held the Saturday morning meetings, Strunk held the Saturday
night meetings, on one of which he met Elwyn Brooks White – whom Strunk found
‘sensitive and deeply thoughtful.’
When Strunk came out with his “Elements of Style,” he explicitly stated that
his point was to focus on ‘rules – and principles -- which are most commonly
violated’ – if not “flouted,” as Grice would prefer.
In 1945, when Grice wrote “Intentions and dispositions,” Strunk had a mental
breakdown (but Popper should not look for a causal connection).
The surname “Strunk,” unlike “Grice” (which is more of an Anglo-Norman sort of
thing) is of High German origin.
Cheers,
Speranza
*****
Strunk’s maxims:
''Place yourself in the background!”
"Write in a way that comes naturally."
"Work from a suitable design."
"Write with nouns and verbs."
"Do not over-write."
"Do not over-state." (i.e. rely on implicature)
"Avoid the use of qualifiers."
"Do not affect a breezy style."
"Use orthodox spelling."
"Do not explain too much." (Or "Do not explicate too much; implicate, rather!")
"Avoid fancy words."
"Do not take shortcuts at the cost of clarity."
(This is _extremely_ Griceian in formulation, and appears as coming directly
from Grice’s Oxford lectures on “Logic and Conversation” and how his
desideratum of conversational category should come be first priority).
"Prefer the standard to the off-beat."
"Make sure thy addressee knows who is uttering."
"Do not use dialect."
"Revise and re-write.''
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