(3) Is it in fact true that an ordinary use of language cannot be self-contradictory, unless the "ordinary use of language" is defined by stipulation as non-self-contradictory, in which case, of course, Malcolm's version of the appeal to ordinary language becomes useless against the philosopher's paradox? The following examples would seem to involve nothing but an ordinary use of language by any standard but that of freedom from absurdity. They are not, so far as I can sec, technical, philosophical, poetic, figurative, or strained; they are examples of the sorts of things which have been said and meant by numbers of actual persons. Yet each is open, I think, at least to the suspicion of self-contradictoriness, absurdity, or some other kind of meaninglessness. And in this context suspicion is perhaps all one needs.

1. "He is a lucky person" ("lucky" being understood as disposi-tional). This might on occasion turn out to be a way of saying "He is a person to whom what is unlikely to happen is likely to happen."