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19. Language / F. Communication / 5. Pragmatics / a. Contextual meaning

[aspects of meaning which are decided by context]

10 ideas
A good way of explaining an expression is saying what conditions make its contexts true [Quine]
We say there is 'no alternative' in all sorts of contexts, and there are many different grounds for it [Harré/Madden]
People slide from contextual variability all the way to contextual determination [Bach]
'Semantic type coercion' is selecting the reading of a word to make the best sense [Hofweber]
The Naive view of communication is that hearers acquire exactly the thoughts of the speaker [Recanati]
The domain of an assertion is restricted by context, either semantically or pragmatically [Rayo/Uzquiano]
A sentence can be meaningful, and yet lack a truth value [Magidor]
In the pragmatic approach, presuppositions are assumed in a context, for successful assertion [Magidor]
The basic Kaplan view is that there is truth-conditional content, and contextual character [Cappelen/Dever]
It is proposed that a huge range of linguistic items are context-sensitive [Cappelen/Dever]