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Book Cover
E-book
Author Gauker, Christopher

Title Words without meaning / Christopher Gauker
Published Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, ©2003

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Description 1 online resource (xi, 299 pages)
Series Contemporary philosophical monographs ; 3
Contemporary philosophical monographs ; 3.
Contents Machine generated contents note: Issue -- 1. Received View -- 2. Mental Representation -- 3. Elements of an Alternative -- Pragmatics -- 4. Domain of Discourse -- 5. Presupposition -- 6. Implicature -- Semantics -- 7. Quantification -- 8. Conditionals -- 9. Truth -- Beliefs -- 10. Communicative Conception -- 11. Explanation and Prediction -- 12. Semantics and Ontology
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 terms of 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
Analysis PHILOSOPHY/General
LINGUISTICS & LANGUAGE/General
Notes "A Bradford book."
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 287-294) and index
Notes English
Print version record
Subject Semantics.
Language and languages -- Philosophy.
Semantics (Philosophy)
Pragmatics.
Semantics
semantics.
pragmatics.
17.56 semantics: general.
LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES -- Linguistics -- Semantics.
Language and languages -- Philosophy
Pragmatics
Semantics
Semantics (Philosophy)
Pragmatik
Präsupposition
Propositionale Einstellung
Sprachphilosophie
Semantik
Semantiek.
Semântica.
Pragmática.
Filosofia da linguagem.
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780262273596
0262273594
0585449376
9780585449371