University Press of America
Pages: 236
•
Trim: 6 x 9
978-0-7618-2417-6 • Paperback • November 2002 • $80.99 • (£62.00)
Arnold J. Chien is works as a computational linguist in the Boston area.
Chapter 1 Preface
Chapter 2 Introduction
Chapter 3 The Concept of Speaker's Meaning: Van Fraassen on Why-Questions; WDYM-Questions; Answers to WDYM-Questions; Gricean Speaker's Meaning; Relevance Implicatures and Speaker's Meaning
Chapter 4 What is Said Versus What is Believed: Ambiguity and Speaker's Meaning; Ellipsis and Speaker's Meaning; Conceptual Reasons, First Considerations; The Disquotational Principles; Ambiguity Revisited; Ellipsis Revisited
Chapter 5 Competence: Burge on the Role of Examples; Projection Constraints; Idiolects, Conceptual Reasons and "Usage"; Conceptual Reasons Constrained, Part One; Psychological Indeterminacy
Chapter 6 Metaphor: Metaphor and Speaker's Meaning; Metaphor and Conceptual Reasons; Similarity; Metaphoricity; Conceptual Reasons Constrained, Part Two; The Demand for Explanation
Chapter 7 Notes
Chapter 8 Bibliography
Chapter 9 Index
Arnold Chien takes on the important and neglected question of the meanings of abstract and semantically fluid terms such as 'clever,' 'internal,' and 'freedom.' Chien develops a novel account of the relation between conventional and speaker meaning, and gives detailed and subtle application to a wide range of linguistic phenomena, including ambiguity, ellipsis, competence and metaphor, as well as surrounding issues in the philosophy of language and mind. 'On What We Mean' is an original and impressivework.
— Theodore Sider, Rutgers University
Arnold Chien's book tackles the familiar notion of speaker's meaning with remarkably productive results. First he shows that a surprising wealth of previously unexplored issues around this concept merit careful study. Along the way he delves deeply into the underexplored but pervasive phenomenon of 'conceptual indeterminacy.' He gives a central place in linguistic competence to knowledge of constraints on possible (potentially novel) speaker's meanings. He also applies his framework to a wide range ofphenomena in pragmatics, explaining and unifying them in an illuminating way. This is a comprehensive, rigorous, and original work which will interest researchers in semantics, pragmatics, and philosophy of language and mind.
— Barbara H. Partee, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Arnold Chien's book tackles the familiar notion of speaker's meaning with remarkably productive results. First he shows that a surprising wealth of previously unexplored issues around this concept merit careful study. Along the way he delves deeply in to the underexplored but pervasive phenomenon of 'conceptual indeterminacy.' He gives a central place in linguistic competence to knowledge of constraints on possible (potentially novel) speaker's meanings. He also applies his framework to a wide range of phenomena in pragmatics, explaining and unifying them in an illuminating way. This is a comprehensive, rigorous, and original work which will interest researchers in semantics, pragmatics, and philosophy of language and mind.
— Barbara H. Partee, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Arnold Chien takes on the important and neglected question of the meanings of abstract and semantically fluid terms such as 'clever,' 'internal,' and 'freedom.' Chien develops a novel account of the relation between conventional and speaker meaning, and gives detailed and subtle application to a wide range of linguistic phenomena, including ambiguity, ellipsis, competence and metaphor, as well as surrounding issues in the philosophy of language and mind. 'On What We Mean' is an original and impressive work.
— Theodore Sider, Rutgers University