Bob Beddor
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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:
 
  • 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



 


 


 

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