Words without meaning

313 Pages·2003·0.653 MB·English

by  Christopher Gauker

Words without
Meaning
Contemporary Philosophical Monographs
Peter Ludlow, editor
1. A Slim Book about Narrow Content Gabriel M. A. Segal
(2000)
2. Complex Demonstratives Jeffrey C. King (2001)
3. Words without Meaning Christopher Gauker (2003)
Words without
Meaning
Christopher Gauker
ABradford Book
The MIT Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
© 2003 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form
by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, record-
ing, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing
from the publisher.
This book was set in Palatino by SNPBest-set Typesetter Ltd., Hong Kong
and was printed and bound in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gauker, Christopher.
Words without meaning / Christopher Gauker.
p. cm.—(Contemporary philosophical monographs; 3)
“ABradford book.”
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-262-07242-4 (hc. : alk. paper)—ISBN 0-262-57162-5 (pbk. : alk.
paper)
1. Semantics. 2. Language and languages—Philosophy. 3. Semantics
(Philosophy). 4. Pragmatics. I. Title. II. Series.
P325 .G364 2003
401¢.43—dc21 2002067839
To my father, Reid Stiers Gauker
This Page Intentionally Left Blank
Contents
Preface ix
The Issue
1 The Received View 3
2 Mental Representation 27
3 Elements of an Alternative 49
Pragmatics
4 Domain of Discourse 73
5 Presupposition 97
6 Implicature 121
viii Contents
Semantics
7 Quantification 145
8 Conditionals 167
9 Truth 191
Beliefs
10 The Communicative Conception 215
11 Explanation and Prediction 237
12 Semantics and Ontology 259
Afterword 281
References 287
Index 295