Speaking Loosely: Sentence Nonliterality KENT BACH T his paper concerns a linguistic phenomenon so pervasive that it hardly ever gets mentioned, much less labeled, at least by theorists. Perhaps that is the most interesting thing about it. It is a perfectly familiar phenomenon, describable as “speaking loosely.” But it is a particular way of speaking loosely, not to be confused with other kinds, like exaggeration and understatement. It is a special kind of nonliteral use. Words do not have nonliteral meanings (it is redundant to describe the mean- ings they do have as their literal meanings), but they can be used in nonliteral ways. You speak nonliterally when you say one thing and mean something else instead. 1 In familiar cases, such as metaphor and metonymy, particular expressions are used nonliterally. Such uses are commonly described as “figurative.” But there is a differ- ent phenomenon, which I call “sentence nonliterality,” as opposed to constituent nonliterality. Here a whole sentence is used nonliterally, without any of its constitu- ent expressions being so used. Figurative speech is easily recognized as such. If I call someone an ape, a dog, or a pig, presumably I am not describing him literally as an animal of any of those sorts. Similarly, if I comment on the behavior of a know-it-all by saying, “The brain is pontificating again,” presumably I am using “the brain” to refer to a certain person. Brains, those chunks of gray matter in people’s heads, do not pontificate; people do. I could add to the metaphorical mix by saying that, instead of “pontificating,” the brain is mouthing off (or spouting off) again. When I say such a thing, it is obvious to my Midwest Studies in Philosophy, XXV (2001) 249 1 You speak indirectly when you mean one thing and mean something else as well. This can occur when you say one thing and mean not only that but something else as well. It is possible to speak both nonliterally and indirectly in the same breath (Bach and Harnish 1979, 71ff). You might use “I’m sure the cat likes having its tail pulled” to assert nonliterally that it doesn’t and indirectly to ask your listener to stop pulling its tail.