| in | The Japanese Journal of Language in Society, Vol.6 No.1 (2003), pp.29-39 [published by The Japanese Association of Sociolinguistic Sciences] |
It is critically important for theoretical sociology to find an appropriate way of giving a description of communication, which is different enough from a mere physical description of information transmission. This paper seeks the way from H. Paul Grice's theory of non-natural meaning. According to it non-natural meaning can be explained by speaker's reflective intention(s). There are two kinds of criticisms of Grice's account of meaning, one to emphasize linguistic convention in communication, another to point out infinite regression of reflective intention. Although these criticisms have been discussed separately, by considering a connection between them I show that the reflective intention in communication has an intrinsic relation to the normativeness of language.