Philosophical Essays, Volume 1: Natural Language: What It Means and How We Use It PDF
Preview Philosophical Essays, Volume 1: Natural Language: What It Means and How We Use It
Philosophical Essays This page intentionally left blank PHILOSOPHICAL ESSAYS Volume 1 natural language: what it means and how we use it Scott Soames princeton university press princeton and oxford Copyright © 2009 by Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TW All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Soames, Scott. Philosophical essays : natural language : what it means and how we use it / Scott Soames. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-691-13680-6 (v. 1 : hardcover : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-0-691-13681-3 (v. 1. : pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Language and languages—Philosophy. 2. Linguistics. 3. Semantics. I. Title. P107.S67 2009 410.9—dc22 2008019492 British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available This book has been composed in Sabon Printed on acid-free paper. ∞ press.princeton.edu Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 THESE VOLUMES ARE DEDICATED TO THE PEOPLE I LOVE My wife, Martha My sons, Greg and Brian and to the memory of my parents Bill and Ruth Soames This page intentionally left blank Contents The Origins of These Essays ix Introduction 1 Part One Presupposition 21 Essay One A Projection Problem for Speaker Presuppositions 23 Essay Two Presupposition 73 Part Two Language and Linguistic Competence 131 Essay Three Linguistics and Psychology 133 Essay Four Semantics and Psychology 159 Essay Five Semantics and Semantic Competence 182 Essay Six The Necessity Argument 202 Essay Seven Truth, Meaning, and Understanding 208 Essay Eight Truth and Meaning—in Perspective 225 PartThree Semantics and Pragmatics 249 Essay Nine Naming and Asserting 251 Essay Ten The Gap between Meaning and Assertion: Why What We Literally Say Often Differs from What Our Words Literally Mean 278 viii • Contents Essay Eleven Drawing the Line between Meaning and Implicature—and Relating Both to Assertion 298 Part Four Descriptions 327 Essay Twelve Incomplete Definite Descriptions 329 Essay Thirteen Donnellan’s Referential/Attributive Distinction 360 Essay Fourteen Why Incomplete Definite Descriptions Do Not Defeat Russell’s Theory of Descriptions 377 Part Five Meaning and Use: Lessons for Legal Interpretation 401 Essay Fifteen Interpreting Legal Texts: What Is, and What Is Not, Special about the Law 403 Index 425 The Origins of These Essays Essay One Linguistic Inquiry10 (1979): 623–66. Reprinted by permission of Linguistic Inquiry. Essay Two D. Gabbay and F. Guenthner, eds. Handbook of Philosophical Logic, vol. 4: Topics in the Philosophy of Language. Dordrecht: Reidel, 1989. 553–616. Reprinted with the kind permission of Springer Science and Business Media. Essay Three Linguistics and Philosophy7 (1984): 155–79. Reprinted with the kind permission of Springer Science and Business Media. Essay Four Jerrold J. Katz, ed. The Philosophy of Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985. 204–26. Reprinted by permission of Oxford University Press. Essay Five James E. Tomberlin, ed. Philosophy of Mind and Action Theory. Philosophical Perspectives 3. Atascadero, Calif.: Ridgeview. 575–96. Reprinted by permission of Blackwell Publishing. Essay Six Linguistics and Philosophy14 (1991): 575–80. Reprinted with the kind permission of Springer Science and Business Media. Essay Seven Philosophical Studies65 (1992): 17–35. Reprinted with the kind permission of Springer Science and Business Media. Essay Eight Midwest Studies in Philosophy32, forthcoming. Reprinted by permission of Midwest Studies in Philosophyand Blackwell Publishing. Essay Nine Zoltan Szabo, ed. Semantics vs. Pragmatics. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. 356–82. Reprinted by permission of Oxford University Press. Essay Ten Written for the conference “Asserting, Meaning, and Implying,” in honor of Jay David Atlas, at Pomona College, April 2004. Previously unpublished.
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