PH2242: Philosophy of Language
Course Description: Over the last century, philosophers and linguists have made great strides in understanding linguistic meaning and communication. This course will provide a broad overview of some of the major developments on this front. We’ll tackle topics such as:
Schedule
Unit 1: Reference and Meaning
Week 1 – Introduction to Philosophy of Language
Week 2 - Frege on Sense and Reference (handout)
Required Reading:
Week 3 - Russell on Meaning, Reference, and Descriptions (handout)
Required Reading:
Week 4 – Kripke on Names and Descriptions (handout)
Required Readings:
Recommended Readings:
Week 5 – Is Meaning in the Head? (handout)
Required Reading:
Recommend Reading:
Unit 2: The Pursuit of a General Theory of Meaning
Week 6 – From Verificationism to Truth Conditional Semantics (handout)
Required Reading:
Week 7 – Beyond Truth Conditional Semantics?
Part 1: Implicatures and Presuppositions (handout)
Required Reading:
Recommended Reading:
Week 8 – Beyond Truth Conditional Semantics?
Part 2: Taste Talk, Moral Discourse, and Expressivism (handout)
Required Reading:
Unit 3: How is Meaning Possible?
Week 9 - Foundations of Meaning:
The Kripkenstein Paradox, Part 1 (handout)
Required Reading:
Week 10 - Foundations of Meaning:
The Kripkenstein Paradox, Part 2 (handout)
Required Reading:
Unit 4: At the Margins: Intersections with Linguistics and Psychology
Week 11 - What Does it Take to Learn a Language? (handout)
Required Readings:
Recommended Reading:
Week 12: Does Language Shape Thought? (handout)
Required Readings:
Recommended Reading:
Week 13 - Review/Catch-up
- The Nature of Meaning. Humans have a remarkable ability to invest noises and written marks with meaning. How is this possible? What makes a particular word – say, my use of the word “cats” – mean what it does (namely, cats), rather than something else (e.g., dogs), or, for that matter, nothing at all?
- The Semantics/Pragmatics Distinction. Sometimes we mean something (in a suitably broad sense of meaning) without directly saying it (e.g. sarcasm). What is the relationship between what is said and what is meant but not said?
- Language Acquisition. At any early age, humans acquire the ability to produce and understand a potentially infinite variety of new sentences – that is, sentences they’ve never previously encountered. How is this possible? What’s the best explanation for this extraordinary ability?
- Language and Thought. Does language shape the way we think? If so, in what sense?
Schedule
Unit 1: Reference and Meaning
Week 1 – Introduction to Philosophy of Language
Week 2 - Frege on Sense and Reference (handout)
Required Reading:
- Frege, “On Sense and Reference” (focus on the first 11 pages)
- Kemp, What is This Thing Called Philosophy of Language?, Chps. 1-2
Week 3 - Russell on Meaning, Reference, and Descriptions (handout)
Required Reading:
- Russell, “On Denoting”
- Kemp, What is This Thing Called Philosophy of Language?, Chp. 3
Week 4 – Kripke on Names and Descriptions (handout)
Required Readings:
- Kripke, Naming and Necessity (selections)
Recommended Readings:
- Kemp, What is This Thing Called Philosophy of Language?, Chp. 4, sections 1-6 (pp.54-63)
Week 5 – Is Meaning in the Head? (handout)
Required Reading:
- Putnam, “Meaning and Reference”
- Putnam, "Brains in vats" (Reason, Truth, and History, chp.1)
Recommend Reading:
- Kemp, What is This Thing Called Philosophy of Language?, Chp. 4, section 7 onwards (pp.63-70)
Unit 2: The Pursuit of a General Theory of Meaning
Week 6 – From Verificationism to Truth Conditional Semantics (handout)
Required Reading:
- Ayer, Language, Truth, and Logic (chp. 1)
- Hacking, “A.J. Ayer’s Verification” (chp. 9 of Why Does Language Matter to Philosophy?)
Week 7 – Beyond Truth Conditional Semantics?
Part 1: Implicatures and Presuppositions (handout)
Required Reading:
- Grice, “Logic and Conversation"
- Simons, “Foundational Issues in Presupposition”
Recommended Reading:
- Davis, "Implicature", Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Beaver and Geurts, "Presupposition", Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (esp. sections 1-3)
Week 8 – Beyond Truth Conditional Semantics?
Part 2: Taste Talk, Moral Discourse, and Expressivism (handout)
Required Reading:
- Ayer, Language, Truth, and Logic (chp. 6)
- Schroeder, "What is the Frege Geach Problem?"
Unit 3: How is Meaning Possible?
Week 9 - Foundations of Meaning:
The Kripkenstein Paradox, Part 1 (handout)
Required Reading:
- Selections from Kripke, “Wittgenstein on Private Language”
Week 10 - Foundations of Meaning:
The Kripkenstein Paradox, Part 2 (handout)
Required Reading:
- Millikan, "Truth Rules, Hoverflies, and the Kripke-Wittgenstein Paradox"
- Lewis, "New Work for a Theory of Universals"
Unit 4: At the Margins: Intersections with Linguistics and Psychology
Week 11 - What Does it Take to Learn a Language? (handout)
Required Readings:
- Kuhl, “Early Language Acquisition”
- Cowie, “Innateness and Language”, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, sections 1-2.2
Recommended Reading:
- Saffran et al. “Statistical Learning by 8-month olds”
- Pullum and Scholz, "Empirical Assessments of Poverty of the Stimulus Arguments"
Week 12: Does Language Shape Thought? (handout)
Required Readings:
- Elbourne, Meaning: A Slim Guide, chp.8.
- Li and Gleitman, “Turning the Tables: Language and Spatial Reasoning”
Recommended Reading:
- Winawer et al., “Russian Blues Reveal the Effects of Language on Color Discrimination”
Week 13 - Review/Catch-up