Combining Philosophers

Ideas for Anon (Dan), Keith Devlin and Ofra Magidor

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26 ideas

19. Language / C. Assigning Meanings / 1. Syntax
8073 How do we parse 'time flies like an arrow' and 'fruit flies like an apple'? [Devlin]
18008 Generative semantics says structure is determined by semantics as well as syntactic rules [Magidor]
18010 'John is easy to please' and 'John is eager to please' have different deep structure [Magidor]
19. Language / C. Assigning Meanings / 2. Semantics
18053 The semantics of a sentence is its potential for changing a context [Magidor]
19. Language / C. Assigning Meanings / 4. Compositionality
17999 Strong compositionality says meaningful expressions syntactically well-formed are meaningful [Magidor]
18000 Weaker compositionality says meaningful well-formed sentences get the meaning from the parts [Magidor]
18014 Understanding unlimited numbers of sentences suggests that meaning is compositional [Magidor]
19. Language / D. Propositions / 2. Abstract Propositions / a. Propositions as sense
8076 The distinction between sentences and abstract propositions is crucial in logic [Devlin]
19. Language / D. Propositions / 2. Abstract Propositions / b. Propositions as possible worlds
18001 Are there partial propositions, lacking truth value in some possible worlds? [Magidor]
19. Language / F. Communication / 5. Pragmatics / a. Contextual meaning
18036 A sentence can be meaningful, and yet lack a truth value [Magidor]
18051 In the pragmatic approach, presuppositions are assumed in a context, for successful assertion [Magidor]
19. Language / F. Communication / 5. Pragmatics / b. Implicature
18043 The infelicitiousness of trivial truth is explained by uninformativeness, or a static context-set [Magidor]
18042 The infelicitiousness of trivial falsity is explained by expectations, or the loss of a context-set [Magidor]
19. Language / F. Communication / 5. Pragmatics / c. Presupposition
18047 A presupposition is what makes an utterance sound wrong if it is not assumed? [Magidor]
18048 A test for presupposition would be if it provoked 'hey wait a minute - I have no idea that....' [Magidor]
18049 The best tests for presupposition are projecting it to negation, conditional, conjunction, questions [Magidor]
18050 If both s and not-s entail a sentence p, then p is a presupposition [Magidor]
18054 Why do certain words trigger presuppositions? [Magidor]
19. Language / F. Communication / 6. Interpreting Language / d. Metaphor
18028 Gricean theories of metaphor involve conversational implicatures based on literal meanings [Magidor]
18029 Non-cognitivist views of metaphor says there are no metaphorical meanings, just effects of the literal [Magidor]
18022 Metaphors tend to involve category mistakes, by joining disjoint domains [Magidor]
18024 One theory says metaphors mean the same as the corresponding simile [Magidor]
18023 Theories of metaphor divide over whether they must have literal meanings [Magidor]
18025 The simile view of metaphors removes their magic, and won't explain why we use them [Magidor]
18026 Maybe a metaphor is just a substitute for what is intended literally, like 'icy' for 'unemotional' [Magidor]
18027 Metaphors as substitutes for the literal misses one predicate varying with context [Magidor]