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Single Idea 7751

[from 'Meaning' by H. Paul Grice, in 19. Language / A. Nature of Meaning / 3. Meaning as Speaker's Intention ]

Full Idea

For a statement to have (non-naturally) meant something, not merely must it have been 'uttered' with the intention of inducing a certain belief, but also the utterer must have intended an 'audience' to recognise the intention behind the utterance.

Clarification

He gives 'spots mean measles' as a 'natural' meaning

Gist of Idea

Meaning needs an intention to induce a belief, and a recognition that this is the speaker's intention

Source

H. Paul Grice (Meaning [1957], p.43)

Book Reference

'Philosophical Logic', ed/tr. Strawson,P.F. [OUP 1973], p.43


A Reaction

This is Grice's famous and distinctive theory of meaning. I am struck by the problem of a password, which seems to have a quite different intention from its literal meaning. Also a speaker with two different audiences and opposite intentions.