GRICE: PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORIES OF MEANING
Project:
Speaker Meaning vs. Sentence Meaning:
Sentence Meaning: what a speaker‟s words mean
Speaker Meaning: what a speaker means/ intends to convey by the words s/he
utters
A Two-Stage Reduction:
(i) analyze speaker meaning in terms of psychological states
(ii) analyze sentence meaning in terms of speaker meaning
Natural vs. Non-Natural Meaning:
Natural Meaning
Non-Natural Meaning
“Those spots mean measles”
1) x means that p entails p:
“Those three rings mean that the bus is full”
1) x meant that p does not entail p:
Cannot say, “those spots mean measles but
she hasn‟t got measles”
2) cannot argue from “those spots mean(t)
measles” to any conclusion re “what is
meant by those spots”
3) cannot argue from “those spots mean(t)
measles” to any conclusion to the effect that
someone meant so-and-so by those spots
Can say “those three rings mean that the bus
is full, but it isn‟t full”
2) can argue from “those three rings mean
that the bus is full” to a conclusion re. what
was meant by the rings
3) can argue from “those three rings mean
that the bus is full” to the conclusion that
someone – the conductor – meant by the
rings that the bus is full
4) “those three rings mean that the bus is
full” can be restated as “those three rings
mean „the bus is full‟ ”
5) “the fact that those three rings occurred
means that the bus is full” is not a
restatement of “those three rings mean that
the bus is full”
4) cannot be rephrased as “those spots
mean(t) „(he has) measles‟ ”
5) “those spots meant measles” can be
rephrased as “the fact that he had those
spots meant that he had measles”
Speaker Meaning:
Stevenson: x meansNN something iff x has a tendency to produce in an audience some
attitude and a tendency in a speaker to be produced by that attitude/ tendencies are the result
of an elaborate process of conditioning attending the use of the sign in communication
Objections: (i) putting on tail coats/ belief that one is going to a dance
(ii) statement “Jones is an athlete”/ belief that Jones is tall
(iii) at best an account of sentence meaning/ not speaker meaning
Grice #1: “x meantNN something (on an occasion)” is true iff x was intended by its utterer to
induce a belief in some audience – to say what the belief was would be to say what x
meantNN
Objection: I might leave B‟s handkerchief near the scene of murder in order to induce the
detective to belief that B was the murderer
Grice #2: “x meantNN something (on an occasion)” is true iff (i) x was intended by its utterer
to induce a belief in some audience and (ii) the utterer intended the audience to recognize
this intention
Objection: Herod presents Salome with the head of St. John the Baptist on a charger –
Herod intended to make Salome believe that St. John was dead and intended that Salome
recognize that he intended her to believe that St. John was dead
Grice #3: “x meantNN something (on an occasion)” is true iff (i) x was intended by its utterer
to induce a belief in some audience; (ii) the utterer intended the audience to recognize this
intention; and (iii) the utterer intended that the belief be induced by means of the recognition
of the intention
Sentence Meaning:
“x meansNN (timeless) that so-and-so” = disjunction of statements about what people intend
to effect by x
Objections:
1) Speaker-meaning does not require an actual audience
ex.: working through a problem talking aloud to myself
Reply: [Grice] solution in terms of hypothetical audiences – speakers intend that were
anyone present they would form the belief in the relevant way
2) Speaker may mean something yet not intend to produce belief by intention recognition
ex. (i): in offering an argument one speaker means the conclusion but intends the
audience to come to believe it on the basis of the argument‟s merits itself
ex. (ii) a student who correctly answers an exam question speaker-means something by
her/his answer but does not intend to induce a belief in anyone
Reply: (a) though the audience may believe what the speaker has in mind, their beliefs
may not be fully activated/ conscious – reformulate the intended goal as activated belief
rather than mere belief [Grice]
(b) reformulate the intended goal: not the belief that p but the belief that the speaker
believes that p [Grice]
(c) the speaker is her/his own audience [Schiffer]
3) (a) [Ziff] In answer to the question “what would you say if asked to identify yourself?”
George replies “Ugh blugh blugh ugh”
(b) George meant to show his contempt for the question and meant the questioner to
recognize his contempt by recognizing his intention to show it.
(c) But George did not mean anything in the linguistic sense by “Ugh blugh blugh ugh”.
4) (a) [Searle] During WWII an American soldier, who speaks no German, is captured by
Italian troops. Hoping his captors know no German either he tries to get them to believe
he is a German officer by uttering the only German sentence he knows: “Kennst du das
Land wo die Zitronen bluhen?” (“Do you know the land where the lemon trees bloom?”
(b) He intended by his utterance that the Italian soldiers believe he is a German officer by
means of their recognition of this intention
(c) But he did not mean that he is a German soldier by “Kennst du das Land wo die
Zitronen bluhen?”