Abstract
I discuss a purported connection between Grice’s essay ‘Meaning’ and earlier work by Anton Marty. It has been argued that in 1908, Marty presented an account of meaning that is similar to, if not identical with, Grice’s. My aim is to pursue two questions that arise from this priority dispute. To what extent is Grice, as opposed to Marty, responsible for the account presented in Grice’s essay? And what is to be learned from pursuit of this particular dispute over priority? My answer to the first question is that Grice is largely responsible for the account, although it is reasonable to think that Marty’s account figures as a sort of precursor. My answer to the second question is that what there is to be learned from pursuit of the priority question has at least as much to do with differences between Marty’s and Grice’s respective account as it has to do with their similarities. More substantively, I discuss a particular difference in emphasis between Grice’s account and Marty’s, concerning the nature of expression, and the way in which it highlights the problematic status of expression in Grice’s account of meaning.
