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Paul Grice
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1913 births
   
1988 deaths
   
20th century philosophers
   
analytic philosophers
   
philosophers of language
   
bristolians who attended the university of oxford
   
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MEANING

Grice understood "meaning" to have two kinds: ''natural'' and ''non-natural''. ''Natural meaning'' had to do with cause and effect, for example with the expression "these spots mean measles". ''Non-natural'' meaning, on the other hand, had to do with the intentions of the speaker in communicating something to the listener.

It is non-natural meaning that Grice was most interested in explaining. In his studies, he made many important and powerful distinctions to help form that explanation.

First, he distinguished between four kinds of content: ''encoded / non-encoded content'' and ''truth-conditional / non-truth-conditional content''.

  • ''Encoded content'' is the actual meaning attached to certain expressions, arrived at through investigation of definitions and making of literal interpretations.

  • ''Non-encoded content'' are those meanings that are understood beyond an analysis of the words themselves, i.e., by looking at the context of speaking, tone of voice, and so on.

  • ''Truth-conditional content'' are whatever conditions make an expression true or false.

  • ''Non-truth-conditional content'' are whatever conditions that do not affect the truth or falsity of an expression.


Sometimes, expressions do not have a literal interpretation, or they do not have any truth-conditional content, and sometimes expressions can have both truth-conditional content and encoded content.

For Grice, these distinctions can explain at least three different possible varieties of expression:
  • ''Conventional Implicature'' - when an expression has encoded content, but doesn't necessarily have any truth-conditions;

  • ''Conversational Implicature'' - when an expression does not have encoded content, but does have truth-conditions (for example, in use of irony);

  • ''Utterances'' - when an expression has both encoded content and truth-conditions.



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