Single Idea 18052

[catalogued under 19. Language / F. Communication / 2. Assertion]

Full Idea

Stalnaker starts with the general thesis that the role of a successful assertion of s is to update the context by adding to it the content of s.

Gist of Idea

An assertion aims to add to the content of a context

Source

report of Robert C. Stalnaker (Assertion [1978]) by Ofra Magidor - Category Mistakes 5.3.2

Book Reference

Magidor,Ofra: 'Category Mistakes' [OUP 2013], p.126


A Reaction

This is to be compared with criteria of meaningfulness, such as verificationism, and with Grice's rules of conversational implicature. Presumably if you assert what the context presupposes, you fail to assert, without being meaningless.

Related Idea

Idea 18053 The semantics of a sentence is its potential for changing a context [Magidor]