Philosophy 154: Philosophy of Language

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Thought Before Language? Spelke's Study

Alice (an AI program) takes the Turing Test!

Click on the link to try it out: http://alice.pandorabots.com/

(courtesy of Dusty Bates)

Administrative:

• Syllabus: Philosophy of Language Syllabus
• Required Text: Stainton, Robert J., Philosophical Perspectives on Language, Ontario, Canada: Broadview Press, 1996.

Final Exam Date: Monday, December 14th, 12:45-2:45

Presentation:

• Topics
• Procedures and Expectations
• Grading Form

Essay:

• Paper Topics and Procedures

ExtraCredit:

Class Overheads:

Historical Background (in Philosophy):

• Aristotle on Knowledge
• Descartes and Hume on Dualism
• Descartes and Kant on the Gap
• Descartes, Hume and Kant on Dualism

Syntax, Semantics and Pragmatics

• Whorf's Linguistic Relativism
• Chart: Syntax, Semantics and Pragmatics
• Stainton's Chart: Phonology, Syntax and Semantics
• Syntax: Extensional/Intensional

Direct Reference - Chapter 3

• Direct Reference: Quantified Statements
• Direct Reference: Why We need Propositions
• Arguments Against Direct Reference
• Russell's Theory of Descriptions
• Russell's Semantic Analysis of Descriptions
• Russell on the Informativeness of Identity Statements

Mediated Reference - Chapter 4

• Introduction to Fregean Senses
• Frege: How Reference Occurs
• Frege's Puzzle
• History of Theories of Meaning: Dichotomy, Trichotomy
• Theories of Meaning: Russell and Frege
• Frege's Proof of the Referent in Opaque Contexts
• Mediated Reference: Direct Discourse
• Theories of Meaning, Compared
• Mediated Reference: Functions and Sets
• Possible World Semantics
• Chart: Frege and PW Sense and Referents

Ayer's Verificationist Criteria of Meaningfulness:

• Passages from Ayer's Elimination of Metaphysics

Truth Theoretic Semantics - Chapter 5

• Davidson's Truth Theoretic Semantics
• Davidson's Modified Theory

The Idea Theory of Meaning - Chapter 6

• Against Mental Images as Meaning
• Grice on Meaning
• Meaning: Types, Tokens and Speaker
• Desiderata for a Theory of Meaning

Language Knowledge Issues -Chapter 8

• Arguments for Innateness of Linguistic Capacity
• Nonnativist Replies
• Chomsky's View of Linguistic Knowledge
• Quine's Argument against Linguistic Knowledge

Chapter 9:

• Meaning As Use: Introduction
• Arguments for Meaning Nihilism

Chapter 10:

• Introduction to Grice's Cooperative Principle
• Communication by Implicature
• Grice: Deriving Implicatures
• Sample Metaphors
• Metaphor as Meaning in Context
• Metaphor as a Simile
• Nonliteral Vs. Indirect Chart

Study Questions:

• Stainton, Chapter 1
• Stainton, Chapter 2
• Stainton, Chapter 3
• Stainton, Chapter 4
• Stainton, Chapter 5
• Stainton, Chapter 6
• Stainton, Chapter 7
• Stainton, Chapter 8
• Stainton, Chapter 9
• Stainton, Chapter 10
• Stainton, Chapter 11