Introduction to Philosophy of Language

Motivations: why is language able to

1. express thought?
2. represent the world?
3. clarify ideas?

And why are we able to “know” things, or perform acts of reason?

Use mention distinction

1. Taylor Swift is a singer-songwriter.
2. ‘Taylor Swift’ is a name.

In 1., ‘Taylor Swift’ is used, and Taylor Swift is mentioned.

In 2., ‘Taylor Swift’ is mentioned.

(Names/Signs are used, its references are mentioned.)

Type token distinction

1. Your dog bit my dog.

There are 2 tokens of the type ‘dog’ in this sentence.

Propositions

Many sentences include indexicals (here, now, this, that (demonstratives)) that owe its meaning to the context about which the statement was uttered.

Abstractness of propositions: based on the assumption that human minds each have a unique subjective understanding of reality

• John believes that snow is white
• Mary believes that snow is white
• Do John and Mary believe that snow is white?
  • Yes: The proposition that “snow is white” is abstract and thus can be shared

Compositionality

The meaning of a sentence is determined by

1. The meaning of the words comprising it
2. The semantic value of the grammatical structure of the sentence.

Glossary

Theoretical Linguistics: Syntax + Semantics + Pragmatics

Syntax:

• Study of relationships between signs
• Well-formedness of sign combinations

Semantics:

• Study of relationships between meanings of signs
• System of rules for modelling truth-conditions for sentences

Pragmatics:

• Study of effects of meanings of signs
• Communication, psychological effects, social implications etc.

Speech-act: A single utterance meant to be interpreted as a complete sentence.

Truth-condition: Set of circumstances required for a proposition to hold true.

Cognitiive meaning: The factual objective meaning conveyed by a sentence.

Expressive meaning: The subjective attitudes conveyed by a sentence.

Propositional attitudes: The mental attitude of a person towards a certain proposition type.

Meaning: The meaning of a sentence is the proposition that it expresses

Propositions:

• the contents/meanings of sents
• objects of propositional attitudes
• carry true/false values.

Analytic Truth: Truth that can be derived based on the composition of the meanings of the components of a statement alone without checking with the real world.