Contextualism, Pragmatics and Definite Descriptions

• Autorzy: Massimiliano Vignolo
• Języki publikacji: EN

Abstrakty

EN

Very few philosophers and linguists doubt that definite descriptions have attributive uses and referential uses. The point of disagreement concerns whether the difference in uses is grounded on a difference in meaning. The Ambiguity Theory holds while the Implicature Theory denies that definite descriptions are ambiguous expressions, having an attributive meaning and a referential meaning. Contextualists have attempted to steer between the Ambiguity Theory and the Implicature Theory. I claim that the early contextualist account provided by Recanati and Bezuidehnout based on the idea that definite descriptions are semantically underdetermined and in need of a completion from the contextually available information through an optional top-down pragmatic process suffers from an explanatory gap.

Słowa kluczowe

EN

contextualism; definite descriptions; referential; attributive; modulation; saturation

• Wydawca: De Gruyter Mouton
• Czasopismo: Lodz Papers in Pragmatics
• Rocznik: 2011
• Tom: 7
• Numer: 2
• Strony: 291-307

Daty

wydano

2011-01-01

online

2012-01-05

Twórcy

autor

Massimiliano Vignolo

• University of Genoa

Bibliografia

• Bach, Kent. 2007. Referentially used descriptions: A reply to Devitt. European Journal of Analytic Philosophy 3: 33-48.
• Bezuidenhout, Anne. 1997. Pragmatics, semantic underdetermination and the referential/attributive distinction. Mind 106: 375-409.
• Devitt, Michael. 2004. The case for referential descriptions. In: Marga Reimer and Anne Bezuidenhout (eds.). Descriptions and Beyond. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 280-305.
• Devitt, Michael. 2007a. Referential descriptions and conversational implicatures. European Journal of Analytic Philosophy 3: 7-32.
• Devitt, Michael. 2007b. Referential descriptions: A note on Bach. European Journal of Analytic Philosophy 3: 49-53.
• Neale, Stephen. 1990. Descriptions. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
• Nunberg, Geoffrey. 1993. Indexicality and deixis. Linguistics and Philosophy 16: 1-43.[Crossref]
• Nunberg, Geoffrey. 2004. Descriptive indexicals and indexical descriptions. In: Marga Reimer and Anne Bezuidenhout (eds.). Descriptions and Beyond. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 261-279
• Recanati, Francois. 1989. Referential/attributive: a contextualproposal. Philosophical Studies 56: 217-249.[WoS]
• Recanati, Francois. 1993. Direct Reference. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
• Recanati, Francois. 2004. Literal Meaning. New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Recanati, Francois. 2010. Truth-Conditional Pragmatics. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Rouchota, Villy. 1992. On the referential/attributive distinction. Lingua 87: 137-167.

Identyfikatory

DOI

10.2478/v10016-011-0016-3