Forrest Jackson

Dave Beisecker

PHIL 425

28 September 2011

Notes on Grice: “Meaning”

What is it to say that an utterance means something?

  • An utterance as opposed to a word or expression
  • Utterance
  • Done at a particular time by a particular person
  • Can mean something different depending on its context (when, where, how it is said, etc.)

Utterance meaning needs to be distinguished from “natural” meaning

  • Example
  • Spots “mean” measles.
  • Clouds “mean” rain.
  • Smoke “means” fire.
  • These are examples of natural meaning; their meaning comes from empirical evidence in the world.
  • However, when someone tells you “it is sunny outside,” they are attempting to instill a belief within you, not just inform you about what is. This is “non-natural” meaning.

Non-natural/utterance/speaker meaning is artificial; product of distinctly human action

  • Involves intention
  • Perhaps to understand utterance meaning, we need to invoke speakers’ intentions
  • Unlike natural meaning, utterance meaning can be directed at nonexistent things and be fraught with error

Breakdown of utterance meaning

  • First, the speaker has a thought.
  • Second, the speaker makes an utterance.
  • Third, and lastly, the audience hears the utterance and forms a thought corresponding to the speaker’s initial thought.
  • This account is insufficient (see example below)
  • Murder example
  • Beisecker kills Mr. X.
  • Forrest is the detective investigating the case.
  • Beisecker leaves Erika’s water bottle at the scene of the crime for Forrest to discover, effectively communicating to him that Erika is the killer.
  • It would seem that Beisecker’s action would have non-natural meaning under the “breakdown of utterance meaning” above.
  • However, his placing of the bottle is different from simply leaving a note at the scene reading “Erika did it. –Beisecker.”
  • The note shows intentionality from Beisecker that Forrest would pick up on. The placing of the bottle simply informs Forrest of a natural situation.
  • Therefore, intentionality must be involved in utterance meaning.
  • Affair example
  • Mr. Y is having an affair with Mr. X’s wife and is discovered in a “compromising position” with her.
  • Beisecker draws a picture of what he saw and shows Mr. X. The drawing of the picture contains intentionality on Beisecker’s part and is thus an example of non-natural/utterance meaning.
  • If Beisecker took a photograph of Mr. Y and Mrs. X and then showed it to Mr. X, there would be no intentionality involved; it would simply be the presentation of a fact for Mr. X to discover (natural meaning).
  • Therefore, a speaker must intend for his performance or utterance to produce an appropriate mental state in his audience (be sensitive to the audience’s states of mind).

In order to have utterance meaning, the speaker’s performance/utterance/action must be intended to produce in the audience a certain mental state; the audience must recognize the performer’s intention and how it is operative upon their mental states.

A worry concerning the theory of Grice

  • This notion of speaker meaning seems to ignore aspects of regular linguistic convention.
  • For example, when Beisecker talks, he doesn’t necessarily care about the mental states of his audience at the precise moment he is talking.

The point of Grice

  • Grice focuses on speech acts themselves. A speech act is one that is the product of a baroque, complex intention to bring about a certain effect in an audience by means of the audience recognizing that intended effect.