DOCSLIB.ORG

From Speech Acts to Speech Actions (And Back)

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
From Speech Acts to Speech Actions (And Back) http://dx.doi.org/10.18778/7969-092-3 Iwona Witczak-Plisiecka – University of Łódź, Faculty of Philology Institute of English Studies, Department of English and General Linguistics 90-514 Łódź, 65 Kościuszki Ave REVIEWER Hanna Pułaczewska TYPESETTING Iwona Witczak-Plisiecka COVER DESIGN Barbara Grzejszczak Printed directly from camera-ready materials provided to Łódź University Press by the Faculty of Philology © Copyright by University of Łódź, Łódź 2013 Published by Łódź University Press First Edition. W.06456.13.0.M ISBN 978-83-7969-092-3 Łódź University Press 90-131 Łódź, 8 Lindleya St www.wydawnictwo.uni.lodz.pl e-mail: [email protected] phone (42) 665 58 63, fax (42) 665 58 62 Print and setting: Quick Druk to my family with love ♪ Table of contents Table of contents ...................................................................................................i Preface .................................................................................................................. v INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER ONE The concept of language as action in retrospect ............................................. 3 1.1. Introduction .................................................................................................. 3 1.2. Religious, magic, ritual, and institutional performative utterances of the past and in ethnolinguistics .................................................................................. 5 1.3. Aristotle and the later philosophical-linguistic perspective .......................... 7 1.3.1. Aristotle and antiquity ............................................................................. 7 1.3.2. The Kantian perspective .......................................................................... 9 1.3.3. Reid and the concept of ‘social operations’ ........................................... 11 1.3.4. Frege’s concept of ‘force’ ...................................................................... 12 1.4. Wittgenstein and the concept of a language game ...................................... 14 1.4.1. The concept of ‘meaning as use’: Wittgenstein, his contemporaries and further elaborations ................................................................................ 14 1.4.2. Wittgenstein and the concept of a language game and ‘family resemblance’ .......................................................................................... 17 1.5. Husserl and the phenomenologist perspective ............................................ 19 1.5.1. Brentano’s physical and psychological phenomena .............................. 19 1.5.2. Edmund Husserl and mental activities ................................................... 20 1.5.3. Anton Marty ........................................................................................... 22 1.6. Reinach’s ‘sociale Akte’ in language and law and the beginning of speech act theory in Germany ................................................................................ 22 1.7. Research into functions of language in the linguistics tradition ................. 24 ii | 1.7.1. New voices of the twentieth-century Europe: Ferdinand de Saussure and John R. Firth .......................................................................................... 25 1.7.2. Karl Bühler’s and Roman Jakobson’s models of the functions of language ................................................................................................ 27 1.8. Benveniste and the concept of ‘enunciation’ .............................................. 30 1.9. Slavic languages and research in speech actions ........................................ 33 1.10. Habermas’s sociocultural model of communication ................................. 37 1.11. Summary and preliminary conclusions ..................................................... 38 CHAPTER TWO J.L. Austin’s main tenets of speech act theory: Selected developments and criticism ..................................................................................................... 41 2.1. Sources of John Austin’s theory ................................................................. 42 2.2. The revolutionary turn ................................................................................ 43 2.3. A note on terminological confusion ........................................................... 47 2.4. Performative utterances and speech acts .................................................... 49 2.5. Felicity conditions ...................................................................................... 59 2.6. Speech acts, locution, illocution and perlocution ....................................... 63 2.6.1. Gesticulary, ingesticula(to)ry, and pergesticulary acts .......................... 67 2.6.2. Alternative accounts of the internal structure of the speech act ............ 69 2.7. Acts, deeds, uptake, and tests for performativity ........................................ 87 2.7.1. Problems with uptake and the distinction between illocutionary and perlocutionary effects ............................................................................ 88 2.7.2. Exclusion of ‘non-serious’ and ‘parasitic’ uses ..................................... 92 2.7.3. The canonical form ................................................................................ 93 2.7.4. Ross’s performative hypothesis ............................................................. 96 2.8. Searle’s speech acts and the construction of social reality ......................... 99 2.9. Speech act theory – whose discipline? ..................................................... 105 2.10. Summary and preliminary conclusions ................................................... 110 CHAPTER THREE Speech acts, speech act verbs and metalinguistic classifications ................ 113 3.1. Introduction .............................................................................................. 113 | iii 3.2. Speech acts and speech act verbs – between the emic and etic approaches to classificatory criteria ................................................................................. 114 3.3. Austin’s taxonomy .................................................................................... 125 3.4. Selected classifications of speech acts and speech act verbs beyond Austin . .................................................................................................................. 130 3.4.1. Searle’s modification of Austin’s taxonomy ....................................... 131 3.4.2. Classifications of speech acts and speech act verbs beyond Austin’s and Searle’s models .................................................................................... 139 3.5. Indirect acts and classificatory criteria ..................................................... 158 3.6. Speech act categories in an intercultural perspective ............................... 160 3.7. The act of promising – a ‘zooming’ perspective ...................................... 165 3.8. Speech acts and their classifications in a diachronic perspective ............. 181 3.9. Preliminary conclusions ........................................................................... 183 CHAPTER FOUR Speech acts and the notion of convention ..................................................... 187 4.1. Introduction .............................................................................................. 187 4.2. The concept of convention in linguistics and philosophy......................... 189 4.3. Convention and intention in the context of speech act theory .................. 198 4.3.1. Austin on convention in speech acts .................................................... 199 4.3.2. Strawson, conventionality of linguistic acts and Gricean intervention 205 4.3.3. Searle on convention and intention in speech acts ............................... 209 4.3.4. Morgan on conventions and speech acts .............................................. 213 4.3.5. Selected cognitive approaches including Bach and Harnish (1979) and Levinson (2000)................................................................................... 217 4.3.6. Millikan’s biological model of language and conventions .................. 220 4.3.7. Brandom and linguistic conventions in a normative perspective ........ 232 4.3.8. (Preliminary) Classification of intentionalists and conventionalists .... 234 4.3.9. Convention, semantic minimalism, contextualism, and short-circuited meanings .............................................................................................. 238 4.3.10. Convention and iterability – Derrida and his legacy.......................... 246 4.4. Preliminary conclusions ........................................................................... 248 iv | CHAPTER FIVE From speech acts to speech actions (and back) ............................................ 255 5.1. Introductory remarks ................................................................................ 255 5.2. The concept of situatedness and affordance ............................................. 256 5.3. Speech acts, pragmemes and linguistic communication ........................... 260 5.4. Pragmemes and the ethnomethodological approach ................................. 267 5.5. Preliminary conclusions ........................................................................... 268 Concluding Remarks: Speech act theory: retrospects and prospects
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Performative Speech Act Verbs in Present Day English
    PERFORMATIVE SPEECH ACT VERBS IN PRESENT DAY ENGLISH ELENA LÓPEZ ÁLVAREZ Universidad Complutense de Madrid RESUMEN. En esta contribución se estudian los actos performativos y su influencia en el inglés de hoy en día. A partir de las teorías de J. L. Austin, entre otros autores, se desarrolla un panorama de esta orientación de la filosofía del lenguaje de Austin. PALABRAS CLAVE. Actos performativos, enunciado performativo, inglés. ABSTRACT. This paper focuses on performative speech act verbs in present day English. Reading the theories of J. L. Austin, among others,. With the basis of authors as J. L. Austin, this paper develops a brief landscape about this orientation of Austin’s linguistic philosophy. KEY WORDS. Performative speech act verbs, performative utterance, English. 1. INTRODUCCIÓN 1.1. HISTORICAL THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1.1. The beginnings: J.L. Austin The origin of performative speech acts as we know them today dates back to the William James Lectures, the linguistic-philosophical theories devised and delivered by J.L. Austin at Harvard University in 1955, and collected into a series of lectures entitled How to do things with words, posthumously published in 1962. Austin was one of the most influential philosophers of his time. In these lectures, he provided a thorough exploration of performative speech acts, which was an extremely innovative area of study in those days. In the following pages, Austin’s main ideas (together with some comments by other authors) will be presented. 1.1.1.1. Constative – performative distinction In these lectures, Austin begins by making a clear distinction between constative and performative utterances.
    [Show full text]
  • The Pragmatics of Powerlessness in Police Interrogation Author(S): Janet E
    The Yale Law Journal Company, Inc. In a Different Register: The Pragmatics of Powerlessness in Police Interrogation Author(s): Janet E. Ainsworth Reviewed work(s): Source: The Yale Law Journal, Vol. 103, No. 2 (Nov., 1993), pp. 259-322 Published by: The Yale Law Journal Company, Inc. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/797097 . Accessed: 16/08/2012 14:37 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. The Yale Law Journal Company, Inc. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Yale Law Journal. http://www.jstor.org Articles In a Different Register: The Pragmatics of Powerlessness in Police Interrogation Janet E. Ainswortht CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION....................................... 260 II. How WE Do THINGS WITH WORDS .............................. 264 A. Performative Speech Acts . ................................. 264 B. Indirect Speech Acts as Performatives ......... ................ 267 C. Conversational Implicature Modifying Literal Meaning ..... ........ 268 III. GENDER AND LANGUAGEUSAGE: A DIFFERENTREGISTER .271 A. Characteristics of the Female Register . .275 1. Hedges .276 2. Tag Questions .277 t Associate Professorof Law, Universityof Puget Sound School of Law. B.A. BrandeisUniversity, M.A. Yale University, J.D. HarvardLaw School. My appreciativethanks go to HarrietCapron and Blain Johnson for their able research assistance.
    [Show full text]
  • The Machine-Gun Question: an Example of Conv'ersational Style *
    Journal of Pragmatics 5 (1981) 383 ·~-3 97 383 North-Holland Publishing COlnpany THE MACHINE-GUN QUESTION: AN EXAMPLE OF CONV'ERSATIONAL STYLE * DEBORAH TANNEN Scholars in many disciplines have written about style, a tenn Hymes (1974) aptly calls "protean". In a paper originally published in 1927, Sapir includes style as one of five levels of speech contributing "'to judgments of personality, defining it as "an everyday facet of speech that characterizes both the social group and the individual" (1958:542). Robin Lakoff (1979) follows Sapir in identifying speech style with what is popularly perceived as "personality". Ervin-Tripp (1972) places the study of style in the framework of theoretical linguistics. She discusses use of the term by Hymes, Geertz, and Labov, and suggests that linguistic choices are made on two levels. Syntagmatic relations, following rules of co-occurrence, result in idt1ntifiable styles. Paradigmatic relations, following rules of alternation, result in choices among styles and make possible style..switching, on the model of code..switching. Hymes (1974) builds on this work, noting that a speech community is comprised of a set of styles, and asserting that he uses the term in "the root sense of a way or n10de of doing something". Thus speech styles are simply "ways of speaking". He terms styles associated with specific situations registers, thus accounting for what is often thought of as formal vs. informal speech. The sense in which I shall use style is perhaps closest to Hymes' term varieties: "major speech styles associated with social groups". My use of style refers as well to no more nor less than a way of doing something.
    [Show full text]
  • Indirectness in Discourse: What Does It Do in Conversation?
    Intercultural Communication Studies III:1 1993 Sanae Tsuda Indirectness in Discourse: What Does It Do in Conversation? Sanae Tsuda Tokaigakuen Women's College Introduction This paper tries to explore the various aspects of indirectness in conversational discourse. In the beginning, the theoretical frameworks for the analysis of indirectness are explored by examining Grice's theory of conversational implicature and cooperative principles, Ervin Goffman's theory of face, the application of the idea of face to politeness by Brown and Levinson, and Deborah Tannen's theory of conversational style of message and metamessage. Secondly, different functions of indirectness in conversational interaction will be explored in the light of these analyses. In particular, avoidance of confrontation, manipulation of information, joking, and understatement will be examined as manifestations of violations of Grice's cooperative principles. Cultural differences of indirectness will also be explored. I. Theoretical Frameworks for Indirectness in Conversation 1. Conversational Implicature According to Grice (1975), conversational implicature plays an important role in our personal interactions. In conversation, we usually understand what others are saying even when people do not express their intentions straightforwardly. Grice provides a theory which explains how we correctly interpret what others are implying by universal conventions in human interaction which are called cooperative principles. These 63 Intercultural Communication Studies III:1 1993 Sanae
    [Show full text]
  • The Handbook of Discourse Analysis
    The Handbook of Discourse Analysis Edited by Deborah Schiffrin, Deborah Tannen, and Heidi E. Hamilton The Handbook of Discourse Analysis Blackwell Handbooks in Linguistics This outstanding multi-volume series covers all the major subdisciplines within linguistics today and, when complete, will offer a comprehensive survey of linguistics as a whole. Published Works: The Handbook of Child Language Edited by Paul Fletcher and Brian MacWhinney The Handbook of Phonological Theory Edited by John Goldsmith The Handbook of Contemporary Semantic Theory Edited by Shalom Lappin The Handbook of Sociolinguistics Edited by Florian Coulmas The Handbook of Phonetic Sciences Edited by William Hardcastle and John Laver The Handbook of Morphology Edited by Andrew Spencer and Arnold Zwicky The Handbook of Japanese Linguistics Edited by Natsuko Tsujimura The Handbook of Linguistics Edited by Mark Aronoff and Janie Rees-Miller The Handbook of Contemporary Syntactic Theory Edited by Mark Baltin and Chris Collins The Handbook of Discourse Analysis Edited by Deborah Schiffrin, Deborah Tannen, and Heidi E. Hamilton The Handbook of Variation and Change Edited by J. K. Chambers, Peter Trudgill, and Natalie Schilling-Estes The Handbook of Discourse Analysis Edited by Deborah Schiffrin, Deborah Tannen, and Heidi E. Hamilton Copyright © Blackwell Publishers Ltd 2001 First published 2001 2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1 Blackwell Publishers Inc. 350 Main Street Malden, Massachusetts 02148 USA Blackwell Publishers Ltd 108 Cowley Road Oxford OX4 1JF UK All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.
    [Show full text]
  • Performative Sentences and the Morphosyntax-Semantics Interface in Archaic Vedic
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Journal of South Asian Linguistics JSAL volume 1, issue 1 October 2008 Performative Sentences and the Morphosyntax-Semantics Interface in Archaic Vedic Eystein Dahl, University of Oslo Received November 1, 2007; Revised October 15, 2008 Abstract Performative sentences represent a particularly intriguing type of self-referring assertive clauses, as they constitute an area of linguistics where the relationship between the semantic-grammatical and the pragmatic-contextual dimension of language is especially transparent. This paper examines how the notion of performativity interacts with different tense, aspect and mood categories in Vedic. The claim is that one may distinguish three slightly different constraints on performative sentences, a modal constraint demanding that the proposition is represented as being in full accordance with the Common Ground, an aspectual constraint demanding that there is a coextension relation between event time and reference time and a temporal constraint demanding that the reference time is coextensive with speech time. It is shown that the Archaic Vedic present indicative, aorist indicative and aorist injunctive are quite compatible with these constraints, that the basic modal specifications of present and aorist subjunctive and optative violate the modal constraint on performative sentences, but give rise to speaker-oriented readings which in turn are compatible with that constraint. However, the imperfect, the present injunctive, the perfect indicative and the various modal categories of the perfect stem are argued to be incompatible with the constraints on performative sentences. 1 Introduction Performative sentences represent a particularly intriguing type of self-referring assertive clauses, as they constitute an area of linguistics where the relationship between the semantic-grammatical and the pragmatic-contextual dimension of language is especially transparent.
    [Show full text]
  • Ethnicity As Conversational Style* (-
    ,/ Indirectness in Discourse: Ethnicity as Conversational Style* (- ..... ~... "~ tJ _ i S CO u rs..€ i race$<"" t ~ ~'. ~ ~ ~ 9 ~ u _ t'J 1- '? - I." 9 / • f ./ "' <::---"--. ~o /-. f ~ l DEBORAH TANNEN Georg~town University This paper focuses on indirectness in discourse 85 a feature of convcfl\ational style. Reported researcb emphasizes social differences in elpcctations ofindirectness in the contexl ofconver­ Alion between married partners. To discover patterns of interpretation, findings are drawn from (I) interviews with Greeks and Americans about their interactional experience and (2) a pilot study consisting of a ques­ tionnaire based on • conversation reported in (I) and including (a) paraphra~ choices (b) short answers and (c) open-ended interview/discussions with respondenls. Resuhs suggest that Greeks lie more likely 10 expect indirectness in the context pre~cnled, and IhaC Greck­ Americans who may not speak Greek bave retained the innuence of Greek communicalive strategies. Discussion of differences in interpretive strategies focuses on I) the discourse function of questions and 2) the significance of ellipsis, yielding a br~v;ly efftct. associated for Greeks with an ~nlhusUum constraint. 1"heoraical implicationS include an aUernalive 10 Bems(ein~5 hypothc~i5 about restricted and daborated codes, such that restriction and elabor3liun are nOl monolithic. Rather. groups differ with respect to which contexts, channels, and cues require elaboration. I once began a paper on misunderstandings due to differences in conversational style by referring to the following experience. While I was staying with a fa":lily on the island ofCrete, no maUer how early I awoke, nlY hostcs~ nlanagcd (0 have a plate of scrambled eggs waiting on the table for me by the (hnc I was up and dressed; and at dinner every evening, dessert included a pile of purple seeded grapes.
    [Show full text]
  • Conversational Strategy and Metastrategy in a Pragmatic Theory: the Example of Scenes from a Marriage*
    Conversational strategy and metastrategy in a pragmatic theory: The example of Scenes from a Marriage* ROBIN TOLMACH LAKOFF and DEBORAH TANNEN The question of artistic verisimilitude - the relationship between the representation and the reality - is one of the more intriguing issues in a theory of aesthetics. Until now, linguists have largely been isolated from this area of philosophical speculation because it seemed irrelevant to our interests and impervious to our methodology. But as we get more involved in the formal analysis of naturalistic conversations - through tape recordings or transcripts - we are struck, often, in a perverse way by their apparent unnaturalness, their difficulty in being understood. Com­ pared, say, with the dialog in a play or a novel, naturalistic conversation strikes us as not what we expected, not working by preconceived pattern. We would not claim that constructed dialog represents a reality lacking in transcripts, but rather that artificial dialog may represent an internal­ ized model or schema for the production ofconversation - a competence model that speakers have access to. If, then, we are interested in discovering the ideal model ofconversational strategy, there is much to be gained by looking at artificial conversation first, to see what these general, unconsciously-adhered-to assumptions are; and later returning to natural conversation to see how they may actually be exemplified in literal use. Thus, we are not claiming that the artificially-constructed dialog we are going to discuss literally represents natural conversation, but rather that one can inspect a different level of psychological reality and validity through the use of literary data, and in this paper we will illustrate how such work might responsibly be done.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 DEBORAH TANNEN Department of Linguistics Georgetown University
    DEBORAH TANNEN Department of Linguistics Georgetown University Washington, DC 20057 202/687-5910 Education Ph.D. Linguistics. University of California, Berkeley. 1979 M.A. Linguistics. University of California, Berkeley. 1976 M.A. English Literature. Wayne State University. 1970 B.A. English Literature. Harpur College. 1966 Diploma. Hunter College High School. New York, NY. 1962 Honorary Doctorates University of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, 2002 St. Mary's College, St. Mary's City, MD, 1998 Weber State University, Ogden, UT, 1997 St. Michael's College, Colchester, VT, 1996 Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY, 1993 Professional Positions University Professor, Department of Linguistics, Georgetown University, 1991-present 1989-1991: Professor, Department of Linguistics, Georgetown University 1985-1989: Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics, Georgetown University 1979-1985: Assistant Professor, Department of Linguistics, Georgetown University Visiting 2012-2013 Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA June 1997 Faculty, 1997 Linguistic Institute, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 1992-1993 Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, CA Spring 1992 Visiting Scholar, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ Fall 1991 McGraw Distinguished Lecturer, Council for the Humanities and Department of Anthropology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 1986-1987 Research Associate, Joint Program in Applied Anthropology, Teachers College, Columbia University,
    [Show full text]
  • Making Sense of Metaphors: Visuality, Aurality and the Reconfiguration of American Legal Discourse
    Pittsburgh University School of Law Scholarship@PITT LAW Articles Faculty Publications 1994 Making Sense of Metaphors: Visuality, Aurality and the Reconfiguration of American Legal Discourse Bernard J. Hibbitts University of Pittsburgh School of Law, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.pitt.edu/fac_articles Recommended Citation Bernard J. Hibbitts, Making Sense of Metaphors: Visuality, Aurality and the Reconfiguration of American Legal Discourse, 16 Cardozo Law Review 229 (1994). Available at: https://scholarship.law.pitt.edu/fac_articles/122 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Publications at Scholarship@PITT LAW. It has been accepted for inclusion in Articles by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@PITT LAW. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. ARTICLES MAKING SENSE OF METAPHORS: VISUALITY, AURALITY, AND THE RECONFIGURATION OF AMERICAN LEGAL DISCOURSE Bernard J.Hibbitts* TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION: "AN EAR FOR AN EYE" .................... 229 I. METAPHORS IN LIFE AND LAW ........................ 233 II. "MIRRORS OF JUSTICE": VISUALITY AND LEGAL D ISCOURSE ............................................. 238 A . Seeing Culture ..................................... 238 B. Visuality and Power ................................ 264 C. Law and the Phenomenology of Sight ............. 291 III. "FAIR HEARINGS": AURALITY AND THE NEW LEGAL LANGUAGE ............................................ 300 A. Hearing Culture ...................................
    [Show full text]
  • The Pragmatics of Cross-Cultural Communication1
    The Pragmatics of Cross-Cultural Communication1 DEBORAH TANNEN Georgetown University, Washington 1. INTRODUCTION The study of cross-cultural communication is a paradigm example of the insepar- Downloaded from ability of linguistic theory and application. Linguists study cross-cultural com- munication for its applied significance, which is enormous, given the heterogeneity of societies affected by global migrations and the increasingly cross-cultural nature of commerce, diplomacy, and personal relationships throughout the world. And we also study cross-cultural communication because it provides a discourse analog to the starred sentence in linguistic argumentation. By examining interactions in which http://applij.oxfordjournals.org/ habits and expectations about how to show what is meant by what is said are not shared, we can see semantic processes—how language means—which are harder to observe in the seamless surface of successful communication. I will illustrate the range of aspects of communication that can vary from culture to culture by discussing and exemplifying eight levels of differences in sig- nalling how speakers mean what they say. These aspects of ways of speaking are not extra-linguistic nor even paralinguistic but are the essence of language. Just as physicists understand the nature of physical elements by observing their behavior in various environments and in interaction with other elements, so we at University of South Carolina - Columbia on September 4, 2012 come to understand the nature of language by observing it in communication and in contact with other systems of communication. In analysing the pragmatics of cross-cultural communication, we are analysing language itself. 2. LEVELS OF COMMUNICATION DIFFERENCES What is it that can be culturally relative in communication? The answer is, just about everything—all the aspects of what to say and how to say it.
    [Show full text]
  • Semantics Versus Pragmatics
    Linguistics 103: Language Structure and Verbal Art Pragmatics and Speech Act Theory Semantics versus Pragmatics semantics: branch of linguistics concerned with the meanings of propositions pragmatics: branch of linguistics concerned with • the use and function of language; • the relation between the structural properties of an utterance and its deployment and reception by language users Traditionally, meaning has been studied by examining those sentences which express propositions which have a truth-value. (1) Snow is white. The cat is on the mat. Semantics is concerned with the conditions under which the proposition expressed by a sentence is true. These are said to be its truth-conditions. (2) ‘Snow is white’ is True if and only if snow is white. ‘The cat is on the mat’ is True iff the cat is on the mat. object language: language in which sentences subject to study are expressed metalanguage: language in which the truth-conditions of the proposition expressed by the sentence are expressed (3) ‘Schnee ist weiss’ is True if and only if snow is white. ‘La neige est blanche’ is True if and only if snow is white. The study of the truth-conditions of propositions has a long history in linguistics and logic. One way to talk about truth-conditions is to imagine an inifinite number of ‘possible worlds’ where different states-of-affairs hold true. A (true-false) proposition picks out the set of worlds in which the proposition is true. This way of conceptualizing meaning then permits certain logical relations to be defined mathematically in terms of set theory.
    [Show full text]