The Grammar of Meaning: Normativity and Semantic Discourse

by Mark Norris Lance , John O'Leary-Hawthorne

• ISBN13: 9780521070300
• ISBN10: 0521070309
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-07-31
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

What is the function of concepts pertaining to meaning in socio-linguistic practice? In this study, the authors argue that we can approach a satisfactory answer by displacing the standard picture of meaning talk as a sort of description with a picture that takes seriously the similarity between meaning talk and various types of normative injunction. In their discussion of this approach, they investigate the more general question of the nature of the normative, as well as a range of important topics specific to the philosophy of language.

Table of Contents

Introduction

The ends and means of translation: critical reflections on Quine's indeterminacy of translation thesis

Synonymy, analyticity and a priori authority

Where do we go from here? A pragmatist account of normative judgement

The epistemology of meaning and the analysis of meaning

Robust meaning theories and canonical dispositionalism

Reduction and naturalism

Realism and factuality

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