Overlooking conventions : the trouble with linguistic pragmatism / Michael Devitt.
Devitt, Michael, 1938- author.
2021
P99.4.P72 D48 2021
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Title
Overlooking conventions : the trouble with linguistic pragmatism / Michael Devitt.
Author
Devitt, Michael, 1938- author.
ISBN
9783030706531 (electronic bk.)
3030706532 (electronic bk.)
9783030706524
3030706524
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-70653-1
Published
Cham : Springer, [2021]
Copyright
©2021
Language
English
Description
1 online resource
Item Number
10.1007/978-3-030-70653-1 doi
Call Number
P99.4.P72 D48 2021
Dewey Decimal Classification
306.44
Summary
This book criticizes the methodology of the recent semantics-pragmatics debate in the theory of language and proposes an alternative. It applies this methodology to argue for a traditional view against a group of "contextualists" and "pragmatists" including Sperber and Wilson, Bach, Carston, Recanati, Neale, and many others. The author disagrees with these theorists who hold that the meaning of the sentence in an utterance never, or hardly ever, yields its literal truth-conditional content, even after disambiguation and reference fixing; it needs to be pragmatically supplemented in context. The standard methodology of this debate is to consult intuitions. The book argues that theories should be tested against linguistic usage. Theoretical distinctions, however intuitive, need to be scientifically motivated. Also we should not be guided by Grice's "Modified Occam's Razor," Ruhl's "Monosemantic Bias" or other such strategies for "meaning denialism." From this novel perspective, the striking examples of context relativity that motivate contextualists and pragmatists typically exemplify semantic rather than pragmatic properties. In particular, polysemous phenomena should typically be treated as semantic ambiguity. The author argues that conventions have been overlooked, that there's no extensive "semantic underdetermination" and that the new theoretical framework of "truth-conditional pragmatics" is a mistake
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
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Access limited to authorized users.
Digital File Characteristics
text file
PDF
Source of Description
Online resource; title from PDF title page (SpringerLink, viewed October 19, 2021).
Series
Perspectives in pragmatics, philosophy & psychology ; v. 29. 2214-3815
Available in Other Form
Print version: 9783030706524
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Preface
Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2. Reliance on Intuitions
Chapter 3. The Semantics-Pragmatics Distinction
Chapter 4: Speaker Meanings and Intentions
Chapter 5. Linguistic Conventions and Language
Chapter 6. Bach and Neale on "What is Said"
Chapter 7. Confusion of the Metaphysics Of Meaning With the Epistemology of Interpretation
Chapter 8. Modified Occam's Razor and The Denial of Linguistic Meanings
Chapter 9. Referential Descriptions: A Case Study
Chapter 10. Saturation and Pragmatism's Challenge
Chapter 11. Polysemy and Pragmatism's Challenge
Chapter 12. Sub-Sententials: Pragmatics or Semantics?
Index.

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