Scanned some proofs of an encyclopedia article while invigilating yesterday. I had come up with a fairly clumsy example of an utterance the reader would be unlikely to have seen or heard before as a way of demonstrating the creativity of human language. I then started looking at an article* we'll be discussing at a reading group on Monday, and came across this:
If we consider semantics the science that tells us what is said, Grice let the nose of the pragmatic camel intrude under the tent of semantics
Anyone come across that one before? Bravely, the authors carried on with the metaphor. Personally, I'm in favour of letting the whole camel in. Even if semantics does end up squashed into a corner of the tent next to the pile of sweaty socks.
B-)
*Korta, K. and J. Perry (forthcoming) Three demonstrations and a funeral. To appear in Mind and Language.
Well, there is actually a well-known Saudi proverb that goes: "If the camel once gets his nose in a tent, the body will soon follow". But this metaphor is so not of the Western culture anyway, where are those guys from? It is brave of them to use it, but I think some people reading this would go: "huh?!!! what have camels got to do with all this?"
But, at least, the proverb makes a good case for pragmatics. Yeh, let the whole camel in I say too.