Logic, meaning, and conversation : semantical underdeterminacy, implicature, and their interface.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Atlas, Jay David.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Pragmatics.

Semantics (Philosophy).

Language and languages--Philosophy.

Local Subjects:

Language and languages--Philosophy.

Physical Description:

xv, 284 pages ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Oxford University Press, 2005.

Summary:

This fresh look at the philosophy of language focuses on the interface between a theory of literal meaning and pragmatics--a philosophical examination of the relationship between meaning and language use and its contexts. Here, Atlas develops the contrast between verbal ambiguity and verbalgenerality, works out a detailed theory of conversational inference using the work of Paul Grice on Implicature as a starting point, and gives an account of their interface as an example of the relationship between Chomsky's Internalist Semantics and Language Performance. Atlas then discussesconsequences of his theory of the Interface for the distinction between metaphorical and literal language, for Grice's account of meaning, for the Analytic/Synthetic distinction, for Meaning Holism, and for Formal Semantics of Natural Language. This book makes an important contribution to thephilosophy of language and will appeal to philosophers, linguists, and cognitive scientists.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 253-272) and index.

ISBN:

0195133005

OCLC:

41273206