Single Idea 21645

[catalogued under 19. Language / F. Communication / 5. Pragmatics / a. Contextual meaning]

Full Idea

'Semantic type coercion' is where an expression of variable type is forced to take a particular type on a particular occasion so that the sentence as a whole in which it occurse is semantically interpretable.

Gist of Idea

'Semantic type coercion' is selecting the reading of a word to make the best sense

Source

Thomas Hofweber (Ontology and the Ambitions of Metaphysics [2016], 05.4.4)

Book Reference

Hofweber,Thomas: 'Ontology and the Ambitions of Metaphysics' [OUP 2018], p.139


A Reaction

He compares 'and' in 'John sang and Mary danced' with 'John and Mary danced together', where 'and' can vary in type, and we adopt the reading that makes sense. Hofweber says we do this with number language. He favours 'cognitive need'.

Related Idea

Idea 21644 Numbers are used as singular terms, as adjectives, and as symbols [Hofweber]