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Natural Pragmatics and Natural Codes
Author(s) -
Wharton Tim
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
mind and language
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.905
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1468-0017
pISSN - 0268-1064
DOI - 10.1111/1468-0017.00237
Subject(s) - grice , natural (archaeology) , pragmatics , meaning (existential) , natural language , natural kind , psychology , linguistics , function (biology) , cognitive science , cognitive psychology , computer science , communication , epistemology , philosophy , biology , aesthetics , paleontology , evolutionary biology , identity (music)
Grice (1957) drew a distinction between natural (N) and non–natural (NN) meaning, and showed how the latter might be characterised in terms of intentions and the recognition of intentions. Focussing on the role of natural signs and natural behaviours in communication, this paper makes two main points. First, verbal communication often involves a mixture of natural and non–natural meaning and there is a continuum of cases between showing and meaning NN . This suggests that pragmatics is best seen as a theory of intentional verbal communication rather than a theory of meaning NN . Second, some natural behaviours have a signalling function: they are, in effect, natural codes . Such behaviours do not fit easily into Grice's distinction between natural and non–natural meaning, which suggests it is not exhaustive.