Language Conventions Made Simple

is ruled by convention " and that he proposes to give us "an analysis of convention in its full generality, including tacit convention not created by agreement. " Almost no clause, however, of Lewis's analysis has withstood the barrage of counter examples over the years, 1 and a glance at the big dictionary suggests why, for there are a dozen different senses listed there. Left unfettered, convention wanders freely from conventional wisdom through conventional medicine, conventions of art and "conventions of morality" to conventions of bidding in bridge. 2 Surely it is unwise to try to fell these all with a single stone. Lewis's original goal, however, pursued further in (Lewis 1975), was to describe the conventionality of language, and this may be a more reasonable target.