RT list: Re: RT list: Grice´s Sticky Wicket

-----Original Message-----
From: Denis Donovan <dmdonvan@ix.netcom.com>
To: jlsperanza@aol.com; relevance@linguistics.ucl.ac.uk
Sent: Tue, Jan 12, 2010 8:55 pm
Subject: Re: RT list: Grice´s Sticky Wicket

I was able to get able to obtain Howard White's
article, which both Dan and JL refer to, for
nothing. Zip.

It's easy to do-if, in fact, what you're after is the article.

I'm not sure what Grice had to say about imaginary Gotchas.

Best,

DMD

Denis M. Donovan, M.D., M.Ed., F.A.P.S.
Director, EOCT Institute

Medical Director, 1983 - 2006
The Children's Center for Developmental Psychiatry
St. Petersburg, Florida
Mail: P.O Box 47576
    St. Petersburg, FL 33743-7576
Phone: 727-641-8905
Email: DenisDonovan@EOCT-Institute.org
=====================================================

----
Thanks for this, Denis M. -- I´ll call you D. M. for short. Wow, I 
didn´t know you were writing from St. Pete! I recall your criticising 
me for sounding me like your third grade teacher, but for some reason I 
thought you were Irish or Northern English!  I LOVE St. Pete´s and know 
it by heart. No the Children´s Centre for Developmental Psychiatry. 
That´s a good possessive for our Irish Paolo, "Children´s Center". 
Imagine a child saying, "My center!". No way!
Anyway, I don´t get your insult, if it is one, re: Gotcha! The only one 
I remember is that uttered by Thatcher on the sinking of the Belgrano!
I´m not sure what you mean by Zip. Is that an American expression, or a 
file type?
I assure you that when I double clicked on D. Sperber´s link, I got, 
something like "Sociometry", "the cost of this article is $40".
Anyway, did you enjoy reading it? The powerpoint presentation was fun, 
even if icomprehensible. There is this ratio formula, invented by a 
lady computer scientist, which is VERY complicated to read.
That impresses one power point screen, and I hope the man (White) did 
not change the screen too soon when delivering the paper in Rio de 
Janeiro. Having been there, I noticed not a lot of people attain a long 
attention span! (Blame it on Rio, as they say!)
In any case, the article was fun. Matter of fact, I contacted White, 
but he never replied. I do keep my email to him, which was fun. I 
called it, "Join the Grice Circle!", and I forgot to mention to him 
that we should do something about the Grice Papers at Bancroft. 
Possibly White knows Bancroft by heart. Those 13 cardboard boxes keep 
me awake some nights. The imaginary gotchas.
I found that what White does is note that there are relevant clues for 
retrieving info. My point in Sticky Wicket (and WHAT spelling did Grice 
get?) was that to me, what a computer man or person should do is 
instill things into a computer to MODEL something. But I suppose 
White´s aim is much more practical. Hence my query as to in what sense 
this is NEW evidence. I am used to computer scientists (so-called) 
modelling, rather than providing evidence for things.
As an analytic philosopher (or anal-retentive philosopher, if you 
must), I tend to think of computer or information science not as a 
science as such -- as logic or mathematics are not sciences. If you get 
any book in the philosophy of science, e.g. Chalmers, What is this 
thing called Science, you get straight to the empirical sciences, never 
info sciences.
----
But back to what matters. I see you WERE director at St. P´s, and don´t 
know what the other acronym stands for. I do love St. P´s -- and would 
often visit. I had a place in Isla del Sol, and loved to pay the toll 
way in way out -- everything fun happens in Tampa. I enjoyed the Pass, 
too, and that roseate building.
--
But seriously, before people call us flamers, do say what you found of 
interest in White´s full-length article. I don´t suppose Grice is in 
the reference list, nor that he mentions him _at all_. What I loved 
about the man is his honesty -- and I´m not cc-ing him twice, in case 
he claims harrassment (sic) -- as when he says,
   "Of course, my model"  -- or words to that perlocutionary effect
    "does not PROVE relevant items. Only what SEEM
    to be relevant. In the long run, the items which are NOT
    retrieved by my model may happen to be in the end
    MUCH MORE RELEVANT than the ones targeted".
Which is a big, gotcha. I know the feeling. I recall getting lots of 
hits when researching for Grice in the Philosopher´s Index. Many with 
charming titles, like "Grice´s Contract, revisited", "Grice´s pact, a 
review of the literature", etc. It turned out to be Geoffrey Russell 
Grice, of UEA-Norwich!
So it´s back to sticky wickets.
In fact, I did OED2 for this, and it´s VERY sticky wicket, as 
popularised by a film. I have to find what Grice read on his screen. It 
must have been d*mn funny for him to report his wife about it. He also 
complained, granted, that the spell checker did not recognise his 
"pirot". "Enough!" he is said to have "ejaculated" (or interjected, as 
T. Wharton may have it!).
Maybe EOCT subscribes to Sociometry and that´s why you got it for zip? 
Real gotcha, Grice dixit.
Cheers,
J. L. Speranza, Esq, F. R. S. (failed), etc.
    The Grice Club at
       The Swimming-Pool Library
          The Villa Speranza,
             Bordighera, Imperia.