Abstract of "Humpty Dumpty and Verbal Meaning" (1981)

• Humpty Dumpty's notoriously subjective semantics (Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass, 1872), often cited in the courts, can be rationalized as being an ordinary theory of "stipulative definition," but practiced under extraordinary conditions (time goes backwards, deranging the speech-act procedure). Similarly, H. P. Grice's intentionalist semantics ("Meaning," 1957) makes sense if the concept of verbal intention is understood strictly as presupposing that the speaker believes that her intended meaning may be recognized.

Michael Hancher

Department of English, University of Minnesota

URL: http://umn.edu/home/mh/abshdavl.html

Comments to: mh@umn.edu

Created February 1995

Last revised 17 September 1996