RT list: The Highway Code

In a message dated 6/29/2009 2:37:14 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
asiamorgan@inwind.it writes in "Grice and [visual] communication":
Dear all, I'm writing a paper on maximum Grice applied to visual
communication with particular reference to the instructions for use of Ikea. Is
anybody interested in? I would like to exchange views and above all have any
suggestions on bibliography and whatever. Best Regard, Antonio Lombardi

---
 
Interesting query.
 
I never understood IKEA, though, I don't think.
 
I was thinking of Grice's use of 'dovetailing', but that would be to go
_too_ literal, no? (When he says that one conversational move follows another
in a 'dovetailing' fashion). And IKEA disfavours the use of the see-saw,
anyway.
 
From the online IKEA instructions, I see a couple of obvious interactions
with the maxims. E.g.
 
1. Be orderly! -- I only checked the 'bookshelf' model, but it seems that
without that, I would never arrive at the target of the assembled piece of
furniture. I wonder about more professional types, though. It seems there
is some freedom in the ordering and the instructions display one _favoured_
but not necessarily the only possible order.
 
2. Do not say what you believe to be false. There should be a good
application of something like "Picture Denied". I see IKEA has a good
representation of a would-be carpenter's contingency planning, where this or that is
CROSSED OUT, meaning: do not do this. So I would think it's the visual
counterpart of the "~" operator, with a vengeance.
 
3. Iconic representation. In one (and only one) page in Strand 5 (1987)
Grice expands on a few items that any theory of representation has to achieve.
 (I love his example of Australia being represented in cricket by a team of
 players who will do for Australia 'what Australia cannot do for herself,
to wit: engage in a game of cricket"). Grice talks about iconic versus
non-iconic a lot, and by looking at IKEA instructions one sees that the
iconicity plays a big role, doesn't it. It is a very 'literal' Duden-type of visual
 representation, which is good, for no one wants a Picasso there,
especially as it applies to screws and (smaller) things.
 
4. The topic of visual semiotics has been furthered by E. Morin (in
France); it would seem that Grice is more into the 'aural' meaning. When he says
'iconic' he possibly means iconic in 'sound'. E.g. A baby cries, and
'goes', "Buaahhh!!!". That is, Baby _means_-n that Baby is hungry. But then
little by little, the little potential would-be 'pirot' (for that's what babies
are in Grice's use of the word -- 'pirot') Baby starts to 'manipulate' this
iconic gesture (i.e. display it under 'rational control', and will 'buahh'
not Just when Baby is in Pain but when Baby wants to _mean-nn_ that Baby
is in pain. (There is a cartoon of Mafalda exemplifying this: square 1:
Mafalda's little brother -- Baby -- falls while trying to reach tin of
biscuits; square 2: Baby is about to cry, but reconsiders; square 3: Baby grabs
bench and sits next to the door: square 4: Upon arrival of Mother, Baby now
'displays' 'buahh'). I say Grice's model is more aural than visual with a
caveat. He would like to say (in "Meaning Revisited") that when there is no
iconic resemblance the utterance attains 'semantic freedom' (I think he calls
it) in that *any* token x of an utterance (aural, or under any sensory
modality) X may mean _whatever_. The 'aural' is qualified, since the geniality
of Grice's scheme is to use 'utter' to apply to anything that we 'out',
literally, when we 'mean' (i.e. when we _mind_). -- And all that is so
English and (somehow) lost when the Romance languages speak of 'signifier' and
'vouloir dire' instead, but _expression_ remains.
 
INTERLUDE. But back to visual -- this may not relate, but I will expose it
since it is Gricean and visual. (a) In "Causal Theory of Perception" Grice
considers, "The red pillar is/seems red" as displaying the doubt-or-denial
implicature. So far so good. (b) In "WOW, iii" however, he considers
'disimplicature' as it applies to the very same pattern: colour-word followed by
either is/seem (vide MIT bibliography on the philosophy of colour). The
(medium-green) tie is/seem light green/blue in this light". I find the topic
fascinating, and it involves just _one_ sensory modality -- the 'visual one
-- cfr. Hume's missing shade of blue.
 
5. While Grice considers things like a "HW" (hand-wave) as an example of
utterance-type (and while this may involve some 'visual' display) the kind of
 research Lombardi is promoting seems to dwell with the very kernel topics
of semiotics. I recall Morin, and his analysis of the Gothic 'alphabet' as
an example of the full array of visual 'distinctive features' minimised to
constitute a truly semiotic _system_. The relevance of the 'maxims' for
the interpretation of 'visual' clues looks like a fascinating area of
research, since 'vision' has held a priority in Western thought, it would seem.
Perhaps film studies (and publicity) have discussed Grice in more detail in
this area?
 
8. But again, to narrow it down to IKEA -- however wondrous and varied
their assemblies are -- seems like a perfect point to understand the
'narrative' at play. A similar scenario could be signalling in HOSPITALS, and in
traffic signs. And let us not forget that, besides the handwave, one of Grice's
typical examples is the man (indeed hisself (sic)) who lying in the tub,
codifies a new High-way Code -- with, we hope, all the visual paraphernalia.
Haven't you thought sometimes that some of the traffic signs are _otiose_?
 
Cheers,
 
J. L. Speranza
 
  Refs. The Highway Code, Wiki., pp. 45-55. (<----- guide to visual
imagery therein; not sure it's those pages).
 
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Received on Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:36:07 EDT