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Insensitive Semantics: A Defense of Semantic Minimalism and Speech Act PluralismLinguistics and Philosophy 29 (1): 1-26. 2006.
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131Reply to TsohatzidisMind 107 (427): 665-666. 1998.We reply to Savis Tsohatzidis's comments on our paper The Varieties of Quotation.
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175Context shifting argumentsPhilosophical Perspectives 17 (1). 2003.Context Shifting Arguments (CSA) ask us to consider two utterances of an unambiguous, non-vague, non-elliptic sentence S. If the consensus intuition is that what’s said, or expressed or the truth-conditions, and so possibly the truthvalues, of these utterances differ, then CSA concludes S is context sensitive. Consider, for example, simultaneous utterances of ‘I am wearing a hat’, one by Stephen, one by Jason. Intuitively, these utterances can vary in truth-value contingent upon who is speaking …Read more
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292Davidson: Sobre El-decir-lo-mismo: Separando el contenido del acto de habla del contenido semánticoIdeas Y Valores 53 7-21. 2004.In this article, we present three basic elements of a neoDavidsonian semantics. The first element is the denial that semantic content is identical to the content conveyed by an utterance; second, the adoption of a minimal semantics as the most natural way to develop a semantic theory for natural language, and third, speech act pluralism, understood as the best way to account for when two utterances say the same thing. These elements taken together give an account of one of the central concerns o…Read more
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316On an Alleged Connection Between Indirect Speech and the Theory of MeaningMind and Language 12 (3-4). 1997.A semantic theory T for a language L should assign content to utterances of sentences of L. One common assumption is that T will assign p to some S of L just in case in uttering S a speaker A says that p. We will argue that this assumption is mistaken.
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232Indexicality, binding, anaphora and a priori truthAnalysis 62 (4): 271-281. 2002.Indexicals are linguistic expressions whose meaning remain stable while their reference shifts from utterance to utterance. Paradigmatic cases in English are ‘I’, ‘here’, and ‘now’. Recently, a number of authors have argued that various constructions in our language harbor hidden indexicals. We say 'hidden' because these indexicals are unpronounced, even though they are alleged to be real linguistic components. Constructions taken by some authors to be associated, or to ‘co-habit’, with hidden i…Read more
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31A Theory of Content and Other Essays by Jerry A. Fodor and Holism: A Shopper's Guide by Jerry A. Fodor and Ernest Lepore (review)Journal of Philosophy 92 (6): 330-344. 1995.
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100A Tall Tale: In Defense of Semantic Minimalism and Speech Act PluralismIn Maite Ezcurdia & Robert J. Stainton (eds.), The Semantics-Pragmatics Boundary in Philosophy, Broadview Press. pp. 412-28. 2005.We provide a defense of our insensitive semantics: that is, the combination of semantic minimalism and speech act pluralism argued for at more length in our book Insensitive Semantics.
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100A Tall Tale: In Defense of Semantic Minimalism and Speech Act PluralismCanadian Journal of Philosophy 34 (sup1): 2-28. 2004.In Insensitive Semantics (2004), we argue for two theses – Semantic Minimalism and Speech Act Pluralism. In this paper, we outline our defense against two objections often raised against Semantic Minimalism. We begin with five stage-setting sections. These lead to the first objection, viz., that it might follow from our view that comparative adjectives are context insensitive. We defend our view against that objection (not, as you might expect, by denying that implication, but by endorsing it). …Read more
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151A Tall Tale: In Defense of Semantic Minimalism and Speech Act PluralismIn Gerhard Preyer & Georg Peter (eds.), Contextualism in Philosophy: Knowledge, Meaning, and Truth, Oxford University Press. pp. 197-220. 2005.In Insensitive Semantics (2004), we argue for two theses – Semantic Minimalism and Speech Act Pluralism. In this paper, we outline our defense against two objections often raised against Semantic Minimalism. To get to that defense, we first need some stage setting. To that end, we begin with five stage setting sections. These lead to the first objection, viz., that it might follow from our view that comparative adjectives are context insensitive. We defend our view against that objection (not, a…Read more
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30Truth and Interpretation: Perspectives on the Philosophy of Donald DavidsonPhilosophical Review 98 (1): 107. 1989.
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Shared ContentIn Ernest Lepore & Barry C. Smith (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Language, Oxford University Press. 2006.
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Radical and Moderate Pragmatics: Does Meaning Determine Truth Conditions?In Zoltán Gendler Szabó (ed.), Semantics Versus Pragmatics, Oxford University Press Uk. 2004.
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33Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Language Volume 2 (edited book)Oxford Studies in Philosophy O. 2021.Philosophy of language has been at the center of philosophical research at least since the start of the 20th century. But till now there has been no regular forum for outstanding original work in this area. That is what Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Language offers.
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1Truth in MeaningIn Ernest LePore (ed.), Truth and Interpretation: Perspectives on the Philosophy of Donald Davidson, Blackwell. pp. 3--25. 1986.
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375Truth in the Theory of MeaningIn Ernest LePore & Kirk Ludwig (eds.), A Companion to Donald Davidson (Blackwell Companions to Philosophy), Wiley-blackwell. pp. 175-190. 2013.This chapter reviews interpretations of Davidson's project in the theory of meaning and argues against a variety of views according to which Davidson intended to reduce meaning to some variety of truth conditions or replace the project of giving a theory of meaning with a theory of truth, and in support of interpreting him as offering an indirect way of achieving the goals of the traditional project by appeal to knowledge of facts about a semantic theory of truth for the language, including that…Read more
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131Is radical interpretation possible?In Ralf Stoecker (ed.), Reflecting Davidson: Donald Davidson responding to an international forum of philosophers, W. De Gruyter. pp. 57-76. 1993.
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468Radical misinterpretation: Reply to StoutlandInternational Journal of Philosophical Studies 15 (4): 557-585. 2007.This paper responds to a critical review of our 2005 book Donald Davidson: Meaning, Truth, Language and Reality, by Frederick Stoutland. It identifies a number of serious misreadings of both Davidson and the book.
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402The Reality of Language: on the Davidson-Dummett DebateIn Randall Auxier & Lewis Hahn (eds.), The Philosophy of Michael Dummett: The Library of Living Philosophers, . pp. 185-214. 2007.This chapter identifies the central issue between Michael Dummett and Donald Davidson on the role of convention in language and argues they are not as far apart in the end as they take themselves to be.
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55Slurs and ToneIn Annalisa Coliva, Paolo Leonardi & Sebastiano Moruzzi (eds.), Eva Picardi on Language, Analysis and History, Palgrave. pp. 205-217. 2018.Two claims that are hard to deny are that slurs can be offensive, and that not all uses of language are communicative. It’s therefore perplexing why no one has considered the possibility that slurs might be offensive not because of what they communicate but rather because of interpretive effects their uses might exact. In what follows, we intend to argue just that, namely, that confrontations with slurs can set in motion a kind of imaginative engagement that rouses objectionable psychological st…Read more
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23Language Turned on Itself: The Semantics and Pragmatics of Metalinguistic DiscourseOxford University Press UK. 2007.Language Turned on Itself examines what happens when language becomes self-reflexive; when language is used to talk about language. Those who think, talk, and write about language are habitual users of various metalinguistic devices, but reliance on these devices begins early: kids are told, 'That's called a "rabbit"'. It's not implausible that a primitive capacity for the meta-linguistic kicks in at the beginning stages of language acquisition. But no matter when or how frequently these devices…Read more
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27The Structure of Truth (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2020.This book marks the first publication of celebrated philosopher Donald Davidson's 1970 Locke Lectures. In detailing his work on the theory of meaning, the role of a truth theory, the ontological commitments of a truth theory, and the notion of logical form, these lectures offer a rare insight into Davidson's thought at a key moment in his career.
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50Indirect Reports and Pragmatics in the World Languages (edited book)Springer Verlag. 2018.This volume addresses the intriguing issue of indirect reports from an interdisciplinary perspective. The contributors include philosophers, theoretical linguists, socio-pragmaticians, and cognitive scientists. The book is divided into four sections following the provenance of the authors. Combining the voices from leading and emerging authors in the field, it offers a detailed picture of indirect reports in the world’s languages and their significance for theoretical linguistics. Building on th…Read more
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72Presupposition and Context SensitivityMind and Language 29 (5): 613-627. 2014.We argue there is a clash between the standard treatments of context sensitivity and presupposition triggering. We use this criticism to motivate a defense of an often-discarded view about how to represent context sensitivity, according to which there are more lexically implicit items in logical form than has been appreciated
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