Grice's guillotine

"In every writing on semantic theory, which I have hitherto met with, I have always remarked, that the author proceeds for some time in the ordinary ways of reasoning, making observations about what people say, what they assert and so forth; when all of a sudden I am surprised to find, that instead of sentences containing, 'says' and 'asserts', I meet with no sentence that is not connected with a 'means' or an 'expresses'. This change is almost imperceptible but is, however, of the last consequence. Since this 'means', or 'expresses', indicates some new relation or affirmation; this should be observed and explained and a good reason should be given. For it seems altogether inconceivable, how this new relation can be a deduction from others, which are entirely different from it."