Words without meaning / Christopher Gauker.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gauker, Christopher.

Series:

Contemporary philosophical monographs ; 3.

Contemporary philosophical monographs ; 3

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Semantics.

Language and languages--Philosophy.

Language and languages.

Semantics (Philosophy).

Pragmatics.

Physical Description:

xi, 299 pages ; 21 cm.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, [2003]

Summary:

According to the received view of linguistic communication, the primary function of language is to enable speakers to reveal the propositional contents of their thoughts to hearers. Speakers are able to do this because they share with their hearers an understanding of the meanings of words. Christopher Gauker rejects this conception of language, arguing that it rests on an untenable conception of mental representation and yields a wrong account of the norms of discourse. Gauker's alternative starts with the observation that conversations have goals and that the best way to achieve the goal of a conversation depends on the circumstances under which the conversation takes place. These goals and circumstances determine a context of utterance quite apart from the attitudes of the interlocutors. The fundamental norms of discourse are formulated in termsaof the conditions under which sentences are assertible in such contexts. Words without Meaning contains original solutions to a wide array of outstanding problems in the philosophy of language, including the logic of quantification, the logic of conditionals, the semantic paradoxes, the nature of presupposition and implicature, and the nature and attribution of beliefs.

Contents:

1 The Received View 3

2 Mental Representation 27

3 Elements of an Alternative 49

Pragmatics

4 Domain of Discourse 73

5 Presupposition 97

6 Implicature 121

Semantics

7 Quantification 145

8 Conditionals 167

9 Truth 191

Beliefs

10 The Communicative Conception 215

11 Explanation and Prediction 237

12 Semantics and Ontology 259.

Notes:

"A Bradford book."

Includes bibliographical references (pages [287]-294) and index.

ISBN:

0262072424

0262571625

OCLC:

49576662