H. P. Grice’s Theory of Meaning and Communicative Intentions

Grice conceived that semantic notions like word and sentence meaning were ultimately based on speaker's meaning, and this on speaker's intention, what he called M-intentions. What he conceived as a study of the ontology of semantic notions has been received, however, as a characterization of communicative intentions, the mental causes of communicative acts, and those that the hearer has to understand for the communicative act to be successful.

So conceived, communicative intentions have these characteristic properties:

ü They are always oriented towards some other agent — the addressee.

ü They are overt, that is, they are intended to be recognized by the addressee.

ü Their satisfaction consists precisely in being recognized by the addressee.

These properties are already pointed out in the first version of Grice's M-intentions: "”A meant something by x’ is (roughly) equivalent to ‘A intended the utterance of x to produce some effect in an audience by means of the recognition of this intention’" [9, p. 220].

Grice later reformulated this definition, giving rise to a hot debate about the precise characterization of communicative intentions, mainly about two points:

1. Communicative intentions are intentions to produce some response on the part of the addressee, but what kind of response, exactly, should this be? Suppose I tell you, "It's raining." This act may have many results: perhaps you will hear the words, understand their meaning, come to believe that it is raining, search for your umbrella, fail to find it and grow angry, and finally become so angry you chew the rug. I may have planned all of this, but more typically I will have had in mind that you be prepared for the weather. But my communicative intention seems to be directed at a crucial subgoal. If I get you to believe it is raining, your own rationality will take over and you will get prepared. What I seem to aim at is changing your beliefs. It was this sort of response that Grice took to be typical in his early work on meaning. But it is really more in line with the spirit of his proposal that the crucial subgoal be to get the audience to believe that the speaker believes that it is raining. That's really the change that language can bring about; having gotten the audience that far, the speaker needs to hope that the audience trusts his weather-knowledge, will take the steps to themselves believing in rain, and then prepare adequately for the weather.

But even this rather modest subgoal may be too much to require for the success of the communicative action qua communicative action. Suppose I say that it is raining, and you hear me and understand the meaning of my words. But you don't think I am being sincere; you don't believe that I believe what I said. But still, I have said it. My overall plan to help insure that you don't get wet and catch cold may fail, but I do seem to have succeeded in saying what I set out to say. It seems that the only new mental state needed is the audience's recognition of the speaker's communicative intention; his understanding of the speaker's utterance. This is what has been called ‘illocutionary uptake’: “In the case of illocutionary acts we succeed in doing what we are trying to do by getting our audience to recognize what we are trying to do. But the ‘effect’ on the hearer is not a belief or a response, it consists simply in the hearer understanding the utterance of the speaker” [13, p. 47].

So the most common answer has been to follow Searle on this point and exclude perlocutionary results, beyond uptake of this sort, from the content of communicative intentions.

2. Communicative intentions must be wholly overt: “The understanding of the force of an utterance in all cases involves recognizing what may be called broadly an audience-directed intention and recognizing it as wholly overt, as intended to be recognized” [14, p. 459].

The exact formulation of this requirement has been a subject of intense debate, some arguing for a reflexive (self-referential) definition, others for a potentially infinite but practically finite number of clauses in the definition, with conceptual, logical or psychological arguments. What seems to be a matter of consensus is that every covert or even neutral (with respect to its intended recognition by the addressee) aspect of the speaker's intention must be left out of the definition of communicative intentions.

References

1. Bach K. The Myth of Conventional Implicature / Kent Bach // Linguistics and Philosophy. – 1999. – vol. 22. – P. 262-283.

2. Bach K. The Top Ten Misconceptions about Implicature / Kent Bach // A Festschrift for Larry Horn / B. Birner, G. Ward. – Amsterdam : John Benjamins, 2006.

3. Blackburn S. Implicature / Simon Blackburn // The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy. – Oxford, 1996. – P. 188-189.

4. Cole P. The Synchronic and Diachronic Status of Conversational Implicature / P. Cole // Syntax and Semantics / [P. Cole, J. L. Morgan (eds.)]. – New York : Academic Press, 1975. – P. 257-288. – (vol. 3. – Speech Acts).

5. Davison A. Indirect Speech Acts and What to Do with Them / A. Davison // Syntax and Semantics / [P. Cole, J. L. Morgan (eds.)]. – New York : Academic Press, 1975. – P. 143-184. – (vol. 3. – Speech Acts).

6. Green G. M. How to Get People to Do Things with Words / G. M. Green // Syntax and Semantics / [P. Cole, J. L. Morgan (eds.)]. – New York : Academic Press, 1975. – P. 107-141. – (vol. 3. – Speech Acts).

7. Grice H. P.Further Notes on Logic and Conversation / Paul H. Grice // Studies in the Way of Words / H. Paul Grice. – Cambridge, Mass : Harvard University Press, 1989. – P. 41-57.

8. Grice H. P. Logic and Conversation / Paul H. Grice // Studies in the Way of Words / H. Paul Grice. – Cambridge, Mass : Harvard University Press, 1989. – P. 22-40.

9. Grice H. P. Meaning / Paul H. Grice // Studies in the Way of Words / H. Paul Grice. – Cambridge, Mass : Harvard University Press, 1989. – P. 213-223.

10. Grice H. P. Presupposition and Conversational Implicature / Paul H. Grice // Studies in the Way of Words / H. Paul Grice. – Cambridge, Mass : Harvard University Press, 1989. – P. 269-282.

11. Hancher M. Grice’s “Implicature” and Literary Interpretation : Background and Preface / Michael Hancher // Twentieth Annual Meeting Midwest Modern Language Association, 1978.

12. Searle J. Indirect Speech Acts / John Searle // Pragmatics : A Reader / [S. Davis (ed.)]. – Oxford : Oxford University Ptess, 1991. P. 265-277.

13. Searle J. Speech Acts : An Essay in the Philosophy of Language / John Searle. – Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1969.

14. Strawson P. F. Intention and Convention in Speech Acts / Peter F. Strawson // The Philosophical Review. – 1964. – vol. 73.

Tasks and Questions

1. What does the success of a conversation depend on?

2. What does the cooperative principle consist in? Does it require from speaker and hearer further cooperation towards a common goal beyond that of understanding and being understood?

3. What are conversational maxims? Dwell on their types.

4. Give the definition to conversational implicature. What is it grounded on?

5. What is the essence of a hot debate about the precise characterization of communicative intentions?

6. Explain the difference between conversational and conventional implicatures. Give examples.

7. What is the essence of H. P. Grice’s theory of meaning?