1. language and experience
   • how can different people talk about different experiences and mean the same thing?
   • can our language limit the experience of our world?
2. how much can natural language express formal language concepts
3. language and being: mapping of forms to concepts

why is lang weird

• we always use words
• we refer to something by any kind of script “representation”
  • how can the reference refer to its referent?????
  • shared hallucination same picture in people’s heads
    • Locke
  • causal theory of reference:
    • i learnd what dog means from
    • turns out it is REALLY HARD TO MAKE THIS WORK
    • “Is it cake” Netflix show
      • a fake handbag can cause ppl to say it is a handbag still!
  • innateness:
    • it seems like across languages there are things that are always being referenced
      • not just visible things
      • but also abstract things like quantification
      • and comparison
      • colors
      • though the mapping is arbitrary it almost always exists
  • different qn of conventionality:
    • why this word sound liek what it does

HOW ARE HUMANS CAPABLE OF MAKING LANGUAGES TO REFER TO THINGSINT EH FIRSTPLACE???

UNDERSTANDING somehow in your brain you have the capacity to decode a long and novel sentence.

• feature of languages
  • finite -> infinte via the combinations of rules

pragmatics: how words are used

• use-mention distinction
• “Taylor swift” vs Taylor swift
  • Taylor swift is a singer
  • “Taylor swift” is a name in English
  • Russell is famous for fucking this up
• pointer vs *pointer
  • use vs mention
• Type token distinction
  • “dog dog” <– how many words are there here?
  • type: ans 1
  • tokens: ans 2 (instances/concrete impl)
• Referential theory of names
  • what is “Bob Dylan” referring to?
  • the word “Robert Zimmerman” refers to the exact same thing.
  • Bob Dylan is a famous musician. = Robert Zimmerman is a famous musician.
  • But most people believe the former and not the latter, though they are supposed to mean the same thing.
  • But if they mean the same thing, they how can somebody believe in one but not the other?
  • Frege will deny the referential theory of names

how philosophers think about how sentences are constructed

Philosophical terms (syntactic categories)

1. SINGULAR TERM
   • semantic function of refer to ONE PARTICULAR THING in the world
   • e.g. names, definite descriptions (the tallest man in the world)
2. PREDICATE
   • semantic function of combining with a SINGULAR TERM
   • to convey some PROPERTY or action of the singular term
   • e.g. verb phrase
3. RELATIONS
   • e.g. x loves y
4. QUANTIFIER EXPR
   • Range of content of things
   • “Every”, “Two”, “Some”

(semi-)arbitrary mapping of signs to referent

• construct
• shared hallu
• intention and captured meaning

Focus of the first few weeks: Meanings of names