from Opiniatrety: Missed Opportunity
If I had known about the Twitter-length philosophy contest, I would’ve entered “All conversational implicatures are cancelable, and I am the Queen of Romania. I mean it literally.” Only 99 characters, and not only is it an original argument I actually got it published (with some additions). Oh well.
comment: Was Dorothy Parker the original source of “and I am the Queen of Romania (if memory serves, I think actually “and I am Marie of Romania”) or was she quoting?
blog host’s response: I had thought of it as something of a ready-made phrase but maybe she originated it. I actually changed it from “Marie” so it wouldn’t be a ready-made phrase or idiom, because those mess up implicatures — in this case you actually do have to do the calculation that I’m obviously not the queen of Romania, and so I’m flouting a maxim of quality, and so I’m trying to say that “all conversational implicatures are cancelable” isn’t true either.
Huh. Don’t know what he said, but now I’m kind of worried about using a ready-made phrase or idiom and messing up an implicature somewhere.
