Pragmatics, Philosophy of Language and communication

Problém normatívnosti tvrdenia

by Ladislav Koren

Draft o the paper (in Slovak) - currently under review. Please don't quote without my permission.

Vďaka väzbám na pojmy pravdy, presvedčenia, poznania a odôvodnenia je tvrdenie stredobo-dom záujmu modernej filozofie... more Vďaka väzbám na pojmy pravdy, presvedčenia, poznania a odôvodnenia je tvrdenie stredobo-dom záujmu modernej filozofie jazyka od jej zrodu v diele Gottloba Fregeho. Cieľom tejto štúdie je vysvetliť motiváciu a podstatu filozofických koncepcií, podľa ktorých je tvrdenie normatívny fenomén. Začnem tým, že zmapujem kľúčové myšlienky k problematike tvrdenia, a lokalizujem na tejto mape typické normatívne prístupy. Potom rozoberiem, čo vlastne znamená povedať, že tvrdenie je normatívnym fenoménom špecifického druhu, a predložím špekulatívno-hypotetickú rekonštrukciu genézy tvrdiacej jazykovej hry – presnejšie, jej protoformy – ktorá by mala vyzdvihnúť jej sociálno-normatívne aspekty, ktoré považujem za charakteristické. Na tomto základe nakoniec postavím kritické porovnanie dvoch reprezentatívnych normatívnych prístupov k tvrdeniu: pragmatického inferencializmu Roberta Brandoma a Knowledge Account of Assertion Timothyho Williamsona. Hoci má Williamsonov výklad svoje prednosti, budem argumentovať, že Brandomov prístup adekvátnejšie vystihuje sociálnu povahu tvrdenia, esenciálnu pre túto rečovú hru.

Owing to its connections to concepts of truth, belief, knowledge and justification, assertion has been in the focus of modern philosophy of language ever since its birth in the work of Gottlob Frege. My aim in this study is to explain both motivation and main ideas of those philosophical accounts of assertion that take it to be a normative phenomenon of a sort. I first draw a map of key ideas pertaining to the problem of assertion and localize on it typical normative accounts. Then I take up the issue of what it means to say that assertion is a normative phenomenon of a special sort, and I dare to put forward a speculative-hypothetical reconstruction of the genesis of the assertoric game - or, rather, its protoform – in order to bring to the fore certain social-cum-normative aspects that I consider characteristic of it. This, finally, will provide the basis for a critical comparison of two representative normative approaches to assertion: pragmatic inferentialism of Robert Brandom, and Knowledge Account of Assertion of Timothy Williamson. Williamson’s conception has its merits, but I shall argue that Brandom’s approach to assertion is superior on the ground that it much better accounts for a social dimension of assertion that is essential to this language game.

Of timing, turn-taking, and conversations

by Stephen J. Cowley

This appeared as:
Journal of Psycholingitistic Research, 27/5, 541-571.

Invoking turn-taking to explain conversations has long blocked progress in the field. Not only are there no logical or... more Invoking turn-taking to explain conversations has long blocked progress in the field. Not only are there no logical or empirical grounds for saying conversation is constructed out of 'turns', but acoustic records show talk to be inseparable from how, in a microtemporal dimension, individuals orchestrate their words. Conversations are dialogical activity irreducible to sequences of forms: phonetic substance matters. Talking of 'turns' obscures the significance of how people act. By subordinating action to word-based patterns, talk comes to be conceptualized independently of timing. In advocating the contrary view that timing is central to talk, the paper highlights pitch matching. Using acoustic measures, persons are shown to orchestrate the pitch of their voices so that interindividual patterns embody the interpersonal sense of events. Observations about timing thus clarify what listeners hear when utterances are spoken in a particular sense.

Edward Sapir

by Jeroen Vermeulen

Five approaches to explaining" truth" and" deception" in human communication

by Susan Blum

Accessibility and Relevance: A fork in the road

by Diana Mazzarella

UCL Working Papers in Linguistics 2011 (Vol. 23)

The accessibility based framework proposed by Recanati (2004) aims at explaining the output of primary pragmatic... more The accessibility based framework proposed by Recanati (2004) aims at explaining the output of primary pragmatic processes in entirely associative terms. This attempt has been challenged by the relevance-theoretic position that selection of meaning components is directed by considerations of relevance and not by accessibility alone. The key question concerns the extent to which an associative mechanism can account for consideration of speaker's beliefs and intentions when these affect the derivation of the propositional content of the utterance. This paper discusses two counterexamples to the accessibility based framework; both are cases of reference assignment, one modulated by speaker's abilities and the other by speaker's preferences.

Social Space and the Ontology of Recognition

by Italo Testa

Draft, published in: Heikki Ikäheimo & Arto Laitinen (eds.), Recognition and Social Ontology. Brill Books, 2011 (pp. 287-308)

In this paper recognition is taken to be a question of social ontology, regarding the very constitution of the social... more In this paper recognition is taken to be a question of social ontology, regarding the very constitution of the social space of interaction. I concentrate on the question of whether certain aspects of the theory of recognition can be translated into the terms of a socio-ontological paradigm: to do so, I make reference to some conceptual tools derived from John Searle's social ontology and Robert Brandom's normative pragmatics. My strategy consists in showing that recognitive phenomena cannot be isolated at the level of human interaction, and are, rather, in part proper to animal interaction as well. Furthermore, it is argued that recognitive powers are constitutive powers more basic than deontic ones and play a role much broader than the one they in fact assume in Searle and in Brandom.

Hegelian pragmatism and social emancipation: An interview with Robert Brandom

by Italo Testa

Published in: “Constellations”, 10, 4 (2003), pp. 554-570

Criticism and normativity. Brandom and Habermas between Kant and Hegel

by Italo Testa

Draft, published in: G. Tuzet & D. Canale (eds.), The Rules of Inference. Inferentialism in Law and Philosophy, Egea, Milano, 2009, pp. 29-44

In this paper, making reference to Robert Brandom's philosophical proposal - and against the background of Brandom's... more In this paper, making reference to Robert Brandom's philosophical proposal - and against the background of Brandom's debate with Jürgen Habermas - I shall endeavor, first, to define the relation between recognition and normativity and then between recognition and criticism; in the final part of the paper I shall suggest a perspective that approaches recognition in terms of capacities. On this basis I attempt to see the critical attitude as something that is founded more on individual potentials than on formal criteria and that is essentially connected with a power of redescription: a dialectical anthropology of recognition is thus the most promising base to account for that which substantiates our critical powers.

Brandom's Reconstructive Rationality. Some Pragmatist Themes

by Italo Testa

Published in: "Towards an Analytic Pragmatism. Workshop on Bob Brandom's Recent Philosophy of Language”, edited by C. Penco, C. Amoretti and F. Pitto, CEUR Workshop, Aachen, 2009: http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-444, pp. 1-7

Abstract. Focusing on part one of Tales of the Mighty Dead and on its relation to the after-word to Between Saying and... more Abstract. Focusing on part one of Tales of the Mighty Dead and on its relation to the after-word to Between Saying and Doing, I illustrate what reconstructive methodology is and argue that theoretical thinking is one of its instances. I then show that the historical understanding involved in telling the story of a philosophical tradition is another case of reconstruction: one that deepens our understanding of the retrospective character of reconstruction itself, adding something new to our conception of rationality. I then explore a further instance of reconstruc-tive rationality, that is what Brandom calls “reconstructive metaphysics”, i.e. a reconstructive theory whose aspiration is global rather than local. Finally, I argue that Brandom’s reconstruc-tive metaphysics is basically a pragmatist metaphysics.

Social Space and the Ontology of Recognition

by Italo Testa

Draft, published in: Heikki Ikäheimo & Arto Laitinen (eds.), Recognition and Social Ontology. Brill Books, 2011 (pp. 287-308)

In this paper recognition is taken to be a question of social ontology, regarding the very constitution of the social... more In this paper recognition is taken to be a question of social ontology, regarding the very constitution of the social space of interaction. I concentrate on the question of whether certain aspects of the theory of recognition can be translated into the terms of a socio-ontological paradigm: to do so, I make reference to some conceptual tools derived from John Searle's social ontology and Robert Brandom's normative pragmatics. My strategy consists in showing that recognitive phenomena cannot be isolated at the level of human interaction, and are, rather, in part proper to animal interaction as well. Furthermore, it is argued that recognitive powers are constitutive powers more basic than deontic ones and play a role much broader than the one they in fact assume in Searle and in Brandom.

Język a podróż

by Emanuel Kulczycki

Homo Communicativus. 2006; 1(1):9-15.

Uda­jąc się w podróż, myślimy naj­czę­ściej o tym, dokąd się wybie­ramy, jaki jest cel naszej podróży i jak go... more Uda­jąc się w podróż, myślimy naj­czę­ściej o tym, dokąd się wybie­ramy, jaki jest cel naszej podróży i jak go zre­ali­zo­wać. Chyba nikt z nas nie myśli o tym, jakimi przed­mio­tami zapeł­nić tobół, który mie­li­by­śmy nieść „dla wyra­że­nia sprawy”, którą chcie­li­by­śmy poru­szyć. Nie zasta­na­wiamy się nad tym, gdyż owym baga­żem jest język. Jeśli prze­by­wamy w spo­łecz­no­ści, która poro­zu­miewa się języ­kiem dla nas nie­zna­nym, wów­czas ów język staje się czymś mate­rial­nym, nama­cal­nym. Jest murem oddzie­la­ją­cym nie tylko od poro­zu­mie­wa­nia się, ale i od pozna­nia. Nie dziwi więc fakt, że w histo­rii podej­mo­wa­nych było wiele prób zapeł­nie­nia luki komu­ni­ka­cyj­nej, jaką jest nie­zna­jo­mość języka „tubyl­ców” przez podró­żu­ją­cego (obcego). Roz­wią­za­nie przed­sta­wione w Podró­żach Guli­wera jest jed­nym z wielu przy­kła­dów stwo­rze­nia (a może odkry­cia?) języka uniwersalnego.

The Development of Leibniz’s Considerations in John Yench’s Project

by Emanuel Kulczycki

Studies in Logic, Grammar and Rhetoric. 2009; 28(15):211-220.

The purpose of the article is to present John Yench’s a priori language as a continuation of Leibniz’s idea. Before I... more The purpose of the article is to present John Yench’s a priori language as a continuation of Leibniz’s idea. Before I proceed to show the project of the Inter-Disciplinary International Reference Language, I would like to discuss the development of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz’s view on artificial languages. I will try to show the evolution of Leibniz’s universal language: from its ideal conception to a tool which formalizes the whole of human knowledge. Also, I will show Leibniz’s influence on further ideas of artificial language. I will compare his projects with Yench’s language – Idirl. An analysis of Idirl’s main assumptions will be useful to show the degree of continuation of Leibniz’s ideas in the a priori language of John Yench.

On contextual domain restriction in categorial grammar

by Erich Rast

forthcoming in Synthese, online first: DOI 10.1007/s11229-011-9960-2.

Quantifier domain restriction (QDR) and two versions of nominal restriction (NR) are implemented as restrictions that... more Quantifier domain restriction (QDR) and two versions of nominal restriction (NR) are implemented as restrictions that depend on a previously introduced interpreter and interpretation time in a two-dimensional semantic framework on the basis of simple type theory and categorial grammar. Against Stanley (2002) it is argued that a suitable version of QDR can deal with superlatives like tallest. However, it is shown that NR is needed to account for utterances when the speaker intends to convey different restrictions for multiple uses of the same quantifying determiner. We argue that NR generally fares better with such examples but also observe that examples like Every sailor waves at every sailor might be pragmatically anomalous. An account of contextual domain restriction is proposed that (i) excludes these anomalous readings (but it is shown how they could be included), (ii) makes it possible to express different contextual domain restrictions as long-range dependencies on an interpreter and an interpretation time, and (iii) additionally models restrictions based on locative constructions as general mereological constraints introduced by shifting the index.

The Oral Origin of the Wiederaufnahme

by Amir Eitan

Semantics and pragmatics of negative polar questions

by Maria H. Golka

Connectives

by Caterina Mauri

(to appear) with Johan van der Awera, "Connectives". To appear in Kasia Jaszczolt and Keith Allan (eds.), Cambridge Handbook of Pragmatics, pp. 347-402. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

John Dewey’s Theory of Democracy and its Links with the Heterodox Approach to Economics

by Arturo Hermann

INTEGRATIVE EVOLUTIONARY COMMUNICATION: TOWARDS A CYBERSEMIOTIC FOUNDATION OF FUNCTIONAL DISCOURSE GRAMMAR AND PRAGMATICS

by Ole Nedergaard Thomsen

Co-authored with Søren Brier, Department of International Culture and Communication Studies

In this paper we shall outline a Cybersemiotic foundation for pragmatics-based linguistics, more precisely Functional... more In this paper we shall outline a Cybersemiotic foundation for pragmatics-based linguistics, more precisely Functional Discourse Grammar and Pragmatics. Language is viewed as communication, and communication is viewed as ‘total communication’, that is, integrative evolutionary communication, being an integration of three stages: 1. biological reflexive languaging (social coordination), 2. instinctual-motivational-emotional sign games (ethology), and 3. premeditated, intentional language games (human unitary thinking-speaking-gesturing). Language games subsume the other stages, and thus human evolutionary communication is primarily a symbolic praxis. It is intertwined with the praxis of living, i.e. with different life forms. Together they form a coherent socio-behavioral “package”.

Getting Here from There: The Acquisition of Point of View in Mopan Maya. In -Ethos: Journal of the Society for Psychological Anthropology-. 26(1):48-72.

by Eve Danziger

In -Ethos: Journal of the Society for Psychological Anthropology-. 26(1):48-72.

A study of the Mopan Maya verb tal (coming) shows that ideal adult usage makes reference to the speaker's own... more A study of the Mopan Maya verb tal (coming) shows that ideal adult usage makes reference to the speaker's own location. Child acquisition, however, proceeds by a process of refinement toward rather than a process of extension from this ideal. The moment at which linguistically expressed "point of view" is understood to be ideally restricted to the speaker is critical in social interactionist developmental accounts. It is only after this moment (in the current data, perhaps around eight years of age) that children might be able to use language to see themselves "through the eyes of the Other."

The thought that counts: Understanding variation in cultural theories of interaction. In -The Roots of Human Sociality: Culture, Cognition and Human Interaction-. S. Levinson and N. Enfield (eds). NY: Berg Press. pp. 259-278.

by Eve Danziger

Danziger, E. 2006. The Thought that Counts: Understanding Variation in Cultural Theories of Interaction. In The Roots of Human Sociality: Culture, Cognition and Human Interaction. S. Levinson and N. Enfield (eds) Berg Press, Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. Pages 259-278.