Group 7- Meaning and Intentions

8/6/2019 Group 7- Meaning and Intentions

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Supervisor: Dr. Ha Cam TamGroup 7- K17A: Phan Thi An

Nguyen Thi Nguyet Anh

Do Thi Hong Dung

Le Thi Huong Giang

Do Thi Thu Ha

Nguyen Thi Hai


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Outline

Grice on meaning

Natural Meaning Non natural meaning

Distinction between 2 types of meaning (2 tests)

Practice


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Linguistic vs. non-linguistic communication

Linguistic communication: is the

imparting of information with

using language.

E.g. Thank you!


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Linguistic vs. non-linguistic communication

Non-linguisticcommunication: is the imparting of

information without using language.

E.g. In a given context, a quizzical look and a glance at

two tables might mean Which table do you want to sit

at?and a fake shiver might mean Iwant to sit the

table inside.


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Is the following example a case of communication?

Jack and Lily meet for a coffee. Jack smells

(rather strongly) of sweat. She concludes he has

run to the caf.


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Answer

A case of accidental meaning transmission

rather than communication

Explanation: Jack doesnt intendto

communicate anything. Hes not showing

Lily that he wants to communicate with

her.


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Accidental information transmission

This need not involve any speakers intentions, or

be part of what the speaker wanted to share with

us.

E.g. information about age, social origins, mood,

attitudes, betrayed by accent, intonation, facial

expression, vocabulary, etc.


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Covert communication

This involves some hidden speaker

intention about the belief the hearer is to

form:E.g. trying to appear nicer than one is.

There is a speakers intention which is not,

however, intended to be recognised, and isnot meant to be shared by participants.


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Aspeakers meaning

a complex mental state involving:

An informative intention: An intention to inform

the audience of something.

A communicative intention: An intention that

the audience should recognise the informative

intention.


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Grice on meaning

Grice and his work

- Herbert Paul Grice wrote a paper called Meaning

in 1957.

- The paper Meaning laid the foundations for

numerous current linguistic and psychological

theories.


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Natural meaning (meaningN)

- Natural meaning: meaning of natural indicative pointers,

symptoms, & mental states.

E.g.

Red spots meanN measles

Blackclouds meanN rain.

-T

he crucial fact is that all are somehow only causally related totheir objects.


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Non-natural meaning (meaningNN)

- MeaningNN that is the cognitive significance of signs or acts,

i.e., roughly, meaning that is thesayingof something by means

ofth

ose signs or acts.E.g. Captain Von-Trapp calls his children by blowinghis whistle.

- The crucial fact is that in addition to any causal relations, there

might be between the sign or act & its objects, the sign or act is

also conveyingintentionalcontentof some sort.


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Two tests ofGrice on meaning

Test 1: Entailment

meaningN = factivexmeanN p entails p

(wheneverits true to say xmeans p, p is also

true).

E.g.1: Those spots on your face mean thatyouhave

measles.


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E.g.1: Those spots on your face

mean thatyouhave measles.

This claim could be true only if the underlined sub-sentence is

true (i.e., only ifyoureally dohave measles).

If you had spots but you didnt have measles, the spots would

not mean that you had measles. Not reasonable

meaningN


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E.g.1: Those spots on your face

mean thatyouhave measles.

It can be restated by using Thefact

that:

The fact that youhave those spots on your

face means that youhave measles.


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Test 1: Entailment

MeaningNNxmeanNN p doesnt entail p

E.g.2: The spots in the arrangementbelow mean

youhave measles.


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E.g.2: The spots in the arrangement below meanyou

have measles.

This claim would be true even if the underlined

sub-sentence was false. That is, this claim

would still be correct even if you did not have

measles.

meaningNN


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E.g.2: The spots in the arrangement below meanyou

have measles.

It cant be restated by using The fact that:

?? The fact t

hat you

have t

he spots in t

he

arrangementbelow means youhave measles.


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Test 2: Direct quotation

- In case ofmeaningN, the verb mean cannot be

followed by a quotation (a phrase in inverted

commas)E.g.

??Those spots on your face meanN you have measles.


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Test 2: Direct quotation

- In case of meaningNN,, it can be followed by

quotation.

E.g. The spots in the arrangementbelow meanyouhave measles


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Summary

Tests formeaningN

Tests formeaningNN

xmeans p entailp v

Be restated using inverted

commasv

Be restated using 'Thefact

thatx' v


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Practice

Which of the following claims about meaning are

meaningN, and which are meaningNN?

(i) John is sneezing. This means he has a sinus infection.

(ii) The French sentence, Pierre aims les chats, means

that Pierre likes cats.

(iii) In saying what he did, John meant that he would be

late.

(iv) Failure to bring an accurate map with him meant that

John would be late.


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Explanation

(i) John is sneezing. This means he has a

sinus infection.

MeaningN (xmeanNp entails p; itcanbe restated by usingThe fact

that)


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Explanation

(ii) The French sentence, Pierre aims les chats,

means that Pierre likes cats.

MeaningNN

The sentence would mean what it does even if

Peter hates cats.

x meanNN p doesnt entail p


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(iv) Failure to bring an accurate map with him

meant that John would be late.

MeaningN

Suppose John arrived on time. This would lead us to

reject the claim that his failure to bring an accurate

map meant that he would be late.

Explanation


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Reference

Grice, H.P. The Philosophical Review, Volume 66, Issue 3(July, 1957), 377-388. Cornell University

http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/timw/PLINM101/Week_6.htm

http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/timw/PLINM101/BAOve

rview.htm http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.php?id=229614

http://www.cs.rutgers.edu/~mdstone/class/672/lec/cole.pdf

http://philosophy.uwaterloo.ca/MindDict/grice.html

http://comp.uark.edu/~efunkho/LangS08Notes17.pdf


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Documents

Group 7- Meaning and Intentions