Philosophical Perspectives on Language

Philosophical Perspectives on Language PDF Author: Robert J. Stainton
Publisher: Broadview Press
ISBN: 1551110865
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 254

Book Description
Philosophical theorizing about language now involves an increasing emphasis on empirical work and a renewed convergence with philosophy of mind, formal semantics and logic. This new text reflects this evolution. Philosophical Perspectives on Language is distinguished in several important respects from other introductions to the topic. Rather than looking at philosophy of language as a collection of (at best) loosely related topics—speech acts, demonstratives, sense and reference, truth and meaning, etc.—this book is organized around a unifying theme: language as a system of symbols that is known and used.

The Philosophy and Science of Language

The Philosophy and Science of Language PDF Author: Ryan M. Nefdt
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030554384
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 444

Book Description
This volume brings together a diverse range of scholars to address important philosophical and interdisciplinary questions in the study of language. Linguistics throughout history has been a conduit to the study of the mind, brain, societal structure, literature and history itself. The epistemic and methodological transfer between the sciences and humanities in regards to linguistics has often been documented, but the underlying philosophical issues have not always been adequately addressed. With 15 original and interdisciplinary chapters, this volume therefore tackles vital questions relating to the philosophy, history, and theoretical interplay between the study of language and fields as varied as logic, physics, biology, classical philology and neuroscience. With a four part structure, questions of the mathematical foundations of linguistics, links to the natural sciences, cognitive implications and historical connections, take centre stage throughout the volume. The final chapters present research related to the linguistic connections between history, philosophy and the humanities more broadly. Advancing new avenues of research, this volume is exemplary in its treatment of diachronic and cross-disciplinary interaction, and will be of interest to all scholars interested in the study of language.

Philosophy of Language

Philosophy of Language PDF Author: Scott Soames
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691155976
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 200

Book Description
A masterful overview of the philosophy of language from one of its most important thinkers In this book one of the world's foremost philosophers of language presents his unifying vision of the field—its principal achievements, its most pressing current questions, and its most promising future directions. In addition to explaining the progress philosophers have made toward creating a theoretical framework for the study of language, Scott Soames investigates foundational concepts—such as truth, reference, and meaning—that are central to the philosophy of language and important to philosophy as a whole. The first part of the book describes how philosophers from Frege, Russell, Tarski, and Carnap to Kripke, Kaplan, and Montague developed precise techniques for understanding the languages of logic and mathematics, and how these techniques have been refined and extended to the study of natural human languages. The book then builds on this account, exploring new thinking about propositions, possibility, and the relationship between meaning, assertion, and other aspects of language use. An invaluable overview of the philosophy of language by one of its most important practitioners, this book will be essential reading for all serious students of philosophy.

Translation

Translation PDF Author: William Frawley
Publisher: Newark : University of Delaware Press ; London : Associated University Presses
ISBN:
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 232

Book Description


Philosophical Perspectives for Pragmatics

Philosophical Perspectives for Pragmatics PDF Author: Marina Sbisà
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027207879
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 337

Book Description
The ten volumes of "Handbook of Pragmatics Highlights" focus on the most salient topics in the field of pragmatics, thus dividing its wide interdisciplinary spectrum in a transparent and manageable way. While the other volumes select specific cognitive, grammatical, social, cultural, variational, interactional, or discursive angles, this 10th volume focuses on the interface between pragmatics and philosophy and reviews the philosophical background from which pragmatics has taken inspiration and with which it is constantly confronted. It provides the reader with information about authors relevant to the development of pragmatics, trends or areas in philosophy that are relevant for the definition of the main concepts in pragmatics or the characterization of its cultural context, the neighbouring field of semantics (with particular respect to truth-conditional semantics and some main branches of formal semantics), and recent philosophical debates that involve pragmatic notions such as indexicality and context. While most of the references are to the analytic philosophical field, also perspectives in so-called continental philosophy are taken into account. The introductory chapter outlines some unifying routes of reflection as regards meaning, speech as action, and self and mind, and suggests some connections between doing pragmatics and doing philosophy.

Foundations of Speech Act Theory

Foundations of Speech Act Theory PDF Author: S.L. Tsohatzidis
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134866984
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 518

Book Description
Foundations of Speech Act Theory investigates the importance of speech act theory to the problem of meaning in linguistics and philosophy. The papers in this volume, written by respected philosophers and linguists, significantly advance standards of debate in this area. Beginning with a detailed introduction to the individual contributors, this collection demonstrates the relevance of speech acts to semantic theory. It includes essays unified by the assumption that current pragmatic theories are not well equipped to analyse speech acts satisfactorily, and concludes with five studies which assess the relevance of speech act theory to the understanding of philosophical problems outside the area of philosophy of language.

Philosophy of Linguistics

Philosophy of Linguistics PDF Author:
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 0080930875
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 598

Book Description
Philosophy of Linguistics investigates the foundational concepts and methods of linguistics, the scientific study of human language. This groundbreaking collection, the most thorough treatment of the philosophy of linguistics ever published, brings together philosophers, scientists and historians to map out both the foundational assumptions set during the second half of the last century and the unfolding shifts in perspective in which more functionalist perspectives are explored. The opening chapter lays out the philosophical background in preparation for the papers that follow, which demonstrate the shift in the perspective of linguistics study through discussions of syntax, semantics, phonology and cognitive science more generally. The volume serves as a detailed introduction for those new to the field as well as a rich source of new insights and potential research agendas for those already engaged with the philosophy of linguistics. Part of the Handbook of the Philosophy of Science series edited by: Dov M. Gabbay, King's College, London, UK; Paul Thagard, University of Waterloo, Canada; and John Woods, University of British Columbia, Canada. Provides a bridge between philosophy and current scientific findings Encourages multi-disciplinary dialogue Covers theory and applications

Bertrand Russell, Language and Linguistic Theory

Bertrand Russell, Language and Linguistic Theory PDF Author: Keith Green
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1441180338
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 185

Book Description
Although there has been a significant revival in interest in Bertrand Russell's work in recent years, most professional philosophers would still argue that Russell was not interested in language. Here, in the first full-length study of Russell's work on language throughout his long career, Keith Green shows that this is in fact not the case. In examining Russell's work, particularly from 1900 to 1950, Green exposes a repeated emphasis on, and turn to, linguistic considerations. Green considers how 'linguistics' and 'philosophy' were struggling in the twentieth century to define themselves and to create appropriate contemporary disciplines. They had much in common during certain periods, yet seemed to continue in almost total ignorance of one another. This negative relation has been noted in the past by Roy Harris, whose work provides some of the inspiration for the present book. Taking those two aspects, Green's aim here is to provide the first full-length consideration of Russell's varied work in language, and to read it in the context of developing contemporary (i.e. with Russell's work) linguistic theory. The main aims of this important new book, in focusing exclusively on Russell's work on language throughout his career, are to place Russell within the changing contexts of contemporary linguistic thought; to read Russell's language-theories against the grain of his own linguistic practice; to assess the relationship between linguistic and philosophical thought during Russell's career, and to reassess his place in the history of linguistic thought in the twentieth century. As such, this fascinating study will make a vital contribution to Russell studies and to the study of the relationship between philosophy and linguistics.

The Cambridge Handbook of the Philosophy of Language

The Cambridge Handbook of the Philosophy of Language PDF Author: Piotr Stalmaszczyk
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108656226
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 831

Book Description
The philosophy of language is central to the concerns of those working across semantics, pragmatics and cognition, as well as the philosophy of mind and ideas. Bringing together an international team of leading scholars, this handbook provides a comprehensive guide to contemporary investigations into the relationship between language, philosophy, and linguistics. Chapters are grouped into thematic areas and cover a wide range of topics, from key philosophical notions, such as meaning, truth, reference, names and propositions, to characteristics of the most recent research in the field, including logicality of language, vagueness in natural language, value judgments, slurs, deception, proximization in discourse, argumentation theory and linguistic relativity. It also includes chapters that explore selected linguistic theories and their philosophical implications, providing a much-needed interdisciplinary perspective. Showcasing the cutting-edge in research in the field, this book is essential reading for philosophers interested in language and linguistics, and linguists interested in philosophical analyses.

Hegel's Philosophy of Language

Hegel's Philosophy of Language PDF Author: Jim Vernon
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1441191518
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 170

Book Description
In this bold new book, Jim Vernon develops the general theory of language implicitly contained in the writings of G.W.F. Hegel. Vernon offers novel readings of Hegel's central works in order to explain his views on some long neglected topics and as such demonstrates that his accounts of representation, the concept and the speculative sentence can be used to create sophisticated theories of language acquisition, universal grammar and linguistic practice. Hegel's defence of a scientific philosophy that is necessary and universal seems to eliminate the need for a philosophical linguistics. Since thought is demonstrably objective in itself, questions about the language through which it is expressed appear to be external to philosophy. This has caused many commentators to neglect the real problems that the historical and cultural associations of language pose for the adequate expression of universal thought. Others, exploiting this apparent inadequacy, have argued that the lack of rigorous linguistic analysis in Hegel's philosophy is its greatest, and perhaps fatal, flaw. Although the very idea of a Hegelian linguistics is controversial, this book argues that there are resources within the texts of Hegel for developing a general theory of language as the reciprocal grounding of a universal grammatical form and a particular lexical content. Moreover, it uses this theory to resolve the apparent tension between the necessity of Hegelian philosophy and the contingency of its linguistic expression. In the light of Hegel's critical relation to contemporary debates in Continental and Anglo-American philosophy, coupled with the central role that philosophy of language plays in both streams, this important new study offers the first comprehensive, integrated and fully developed analysis of Hegel's theory of language.