RT list: Reference for Grice 1981 on `and'

Dear all,

in trying to locate the often referred to passage by Grice on `and' in
his 1981 paper `presupposition and conversational implicature', I had
an interesting experience this morning. I want to share this
experience as it may save others considerable time and effort in
finding the reference. For some of you, it may be old information, in
which case I apologise for the irrelevance of this message.

Grice (1981:186) has a famous reference to the pragmatics of `and' which
is often quoted in the literature. This morning I tried to find it in
the 1989 volume of reprints of Grice's papers (Studies in the Way of
Words). I spent a long time trying to find the passage; finally I got
hold of the original 1981 version and found that the 1989 version cuts
out much of pages 184-187 of the original version, including the
famous remarks on `and'! The only warning that the reader of the 1989
book has that something like this maybe going on are Grice's words in
the preface that `[t]he essays in this volume appear in virtually the
same form as that in which tehy were originally published or delivered
as lectures, with the exception of a few places where I have chosen to
rewrite them.'

The upshot of this is: if you want to refer to Grice's remarks on
`and' in that paper, make sure you unambiguously reference the 1981
version and not the 1989 version. And if you are looking for the
reference, and you have the 1989 book handy at your desk, be warned.

Cheers,
Christoph

-- 
Dr. Christoph Unger
SIL International 
Alleestr. 7
67308 Albisheim
Germany
Phone: +49 6355 989939