On Sun, Jun 23, 2019 at 1:12 PM mayqel qunen'oS <mihkoun@gmail.com> wrote:
*There is a klingon, a table, and a chair. And I say to the klingon {yIba'}. *
*Doesn't it stand to reason, that the klingon will understand "sit at the chair" ? Unless he's a moron, or has some table fetish, he *will* understand, "sit at the chair".*
Yes and no. Consider the first of Grice's Rules of Conversation, the Maxim of Quantity: one tries to be as informative as one possibly can, and gives as much information as is needed, and no more. Have you given enough information? Maybe, maybe not. I'm a big guy. I used to be even bigger (well over 300 lbs), and so I got in the habit of looking closely at a chair before I sat in it, because it's more than a little embarrassing to have a chair collapse out from under you. In my experience, most tables are sturdier than most chairs, and on more than one occasion I've opted to sit on a table instead of a chair. The factor driving this choice is obesity, not stupidity. Or the chair could appear to be dirty or marred in some way whereas the table is not. Or perhaps I'm expecting someone else to arrive and since there's only the one chair I'll sit on the table to leave it for the next person. And on and on. You don't need to invoke brain damage or fetishism (though sure, either could be in play) to explain the response. Grice. He knew a thing or two about language.