RT list: Re: Warm Beer At Awesome Picnics

I have not yet found my comments to Perry, but by re-reading her post and
example, it dawned on me that I had entitled the post, as her example
merited, a proper header.
 
"Awful" is a wonderful word. Talking of subsententials, I was watching
BEAUTIFUL Olivia Williams in "The Heart of Me":
 
   (to lodger)
 
      Would you mind awfully?
 
 
---- The DVD commenter, the script writer, as she adapted Rosamond Lehman's
 novel, notes that this is a moment where the assumed 'snobbery' of the
Birkett sisters evaporate.
 
It struck me that what Madelaine possibly meant is
 
   Would you mind awfully (getting lost)?
 

----
 
On the other hand there's the apocryphal comment by the King of England (as 
 he then was) upon entering St. Paul's cathedral:
 
   "Awful".
 
He meant awesome.
 
They say good bear should (I don't do beer) taste and look and 'touch' as  
warm horse urine. So I'm never sure if warm beer is the implicature of an 
AWEful  picnic. Mind, I'm never sure what is picked at the nick picknicking. 
(* In the  South of America, picnic is derogatory, I heard -- cfr. Horn, 
"Etymythologies",  for the Elizabethan Club at New Haven). I never attended one! 
(Do Glyndebourne  ones count? "Glyndebourne at its hedonistic best", Hall 
writes in his memoirs). 
 
Cheers,
 
J. L. Speranza
 
 
In a message dated 9/14/2009 9:34:07 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, Jlsperanza 
 writes:
Good to  hear from R. I. L. Perry. She writes:
"I am interested in the role of  inference in examples of reference 
assignment such as:
A:  How did the picnic go?
B: Awful.The beer was warm.
x:: The  beer was part of the picnic
Carston (2002) says thax  -- an accessible  assumption) acts as an 
implicit premise / bridging implicature that must  be accessed in order 
to determine the referent of the beer in a. If this  is the case, what 
is the implicated conclusion in this example? Also,  would it not be 
possible to interpret this example via narrowing and the  formation of 
the ad hoc concept beer* (representing the subset of  properties that 
relate to beer being drunk at parties)? Any comments on  these issues 
would be greatly  appreciated.