Directival Theory of Meaning : From Syntax and Pragmatics to Narrow Linguistic Content

This book presents a new approach to semantics based on Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz’s Directival Theory of Meaning (DTM), which in effect reduces semantics of the analysed language to the combination of its syntax and pragmatics. The author argues that the DTM was forgotten because for many years philosophers didn’t have conceptual tools to appreciate its innovative nature, and that the theory was far ahead of its time. The book shows how a redesigned and modernised version of the DTM can deliver a new solution to the problem of defining linguistic meaning and that the theory can be understood as a new type of functional role semantics. The defining feature of the DTM is that it presents meaning as a product of constraints on the usage of words. According to the DTM meaning is not use, but the avoidance of misuse. Readers will see how the DTM was shelved for reasons that we don’t find so dramatic anymore, and how it contains enough original ideas and solutions to warrant developing it into a full-blown contemporary account. It is shown how many of the underlying ideas of the theory have been embraced later by philosophers and treated simply as brute facts about natural languages or even as new philosophical discoveries. Philosophers of language and researchers with an interest in how languages and the mind work will find this book a fascinating read. Preface 6 References 9 Acknowledgments 10 Contents 12 Chapter 1: The Directival Theory of Meaning 16 1.1 Preliminaries 16 1.1.1 Terminological Conventions 17 1.1.2 Method of Presentation 18 1.2 The Original Theory 19 1.2.1 What Does It Mean to Speak a Language? 19 1.2.2 Meaning Directives 21 1.2.3 Three Types of Directives 23 1.2.4 Meaning, Translation and Synonymy 26 1.2.5 Additional Notions 31 1.3 Conclusion 33 References 34 Chapter 2: Aims and Ambitions of the DTM 36 2.1 What Type of Theory Is the DTM? 36 2.1.1 Is the DTM Semantics or Pragmatics? 37 2.1.2 Is This Semantics or Meta-Semantics? 40 2.1.3 Is this a Psycho-Linguistic Model? 41 2.1.4 The DTM as a Non-referential Theory of Meaning 42 2.1.5 The DTM as a Conceptual Role Semantics 46 2.2 What Do We Need Narrow Meanings For? 46 2.2.1 User’s Perspective 47 2.2.2 Philosopher’s Perspective 49 2.2.3 Cognitive Scientist’s Perspective 52 2.3 How Does the DTM Fare Against the Desiderata? 53 2.4 Conclusion 54 References 55 Chapter 3: Troubles Ahead 57 3.1 Introduction 57 3.2 From Directives to Meaning – How Is Meaning Generated in the DTM? 58 3.2.1 How Do Meaning Directives Relate to Meaning? 58 3.2.2 How Do Meaning Directives Relate to Language Use? 60 3.2.3 How Is Meaning Extrapolated Further? 62 3.2.4 Is the Meaning of All Expressions Determined by the Meaning Directives? 63 3.3 Consequences of Holism 65 3.3.1 Why Is the DTM a Holistic Theory? 65 3.3.2 Problems with Holism 66 3.3.3 The Fodor-Lepore Dilemma 68 3.4 Meaning Directives Through a Magnifying Glass 70 3.4.1 Where Do We Get Directives From? 70 3.4.2 How Many Types of Directive Are There? 72 3.4.3 What Is Inside Axiomatic Directives? 73 3.4.4 What Is Inside Deductive Directives? 73 3.4.5 What Is Inside Empirical Directives? 75 3.4.6 How to Represent Non-verbal Constituents of Directives? 78 3.5 Did We Forget About Reference? 81 3.5.1 DTM as a Non-referential Semantics 81 3.5.2 What About Truth? 82 3.6 Tarski’s Challenge 87 3.7 Assumptions on Syntax 89 3.8 To which Languages Can the DTM Be Applied? 91 3.8.1 The Fiction of Closed Languages 91 3.8.2 The Relation Between the DTM and “Radical Conventionalism” 95 3.9 Conclusion 98 References 98 Chapter 4: The DTM Among Classic Theories 101 4.1 Chapter Overview 101 4.2 Ferdinand de Saussure’s Semiotics 102 4.3 Wilfrid Sellars and the Rules of Language 107 4.4 Quine’s Behavioral Theory of Meaning 112 4.5 Donald Davidson and Truth-Conditional Semantics 118 4.6 Conclusion 128 References 129 Chapter 5: Stepping Outside the Original DTM 132 5.1 Chapter Overview 132 5.2 How Can We Deal with Tarski’s Challenge? 133 5.2.1 Semantic Empiricism 134 5.2.2 Proto-externalism 135 5.2.3 Nowaczyk-Buszkowski Solution 136 5.3 Towards a Theory of Narrow Meaning 139 5.3.1 Is This Really Narrow Linguistic Content? 141 5.4 What’s Special About Meaning Directives? 142 5.4.1 Artificial vs Natural Languages 142 5.4.2 What Is the Role of Linguistic Intuition in the nDTM? 143 5.4.3 Testing the Directives 145 5.4.4 The nDTM Is Not a Theory of Radical Interpretation 147 5.4.5 How to Spot a Semantic Trial? 148 5.4.6 Vocabulary Markers 150 5.5 How to Modify Meaning Directives? 152 5.5.1 What Is Inside Empirical Directives? 153 5.5.2 Extralinguistic Parts of Directives as Functional Profiles 158 5.5.3 Indeterminacy of Translation 160 5.6 Meaning Directives for the nDTM 172 5.6.1 Types of Directives 172 5.6.2 Description of Directives 174 5.6.2.1 Axiomatic Directives 174 5.6.2.2 Inferential Directives 174 5.6.2.3 Empirical Directives 175 5.6.2.4 Promotive Directives 176 5.6.2.5 Mixed Directives 176 5.7 Conclusion 177 References 178 Chapter 6: New Directival Theory of Meaning 181 6.1 Chapter Overview 181 6.2 Assumptions of the nDTM 181 6.2.1 Assumption 1: Language Contains Directives 181 6.2.2 Assumption 2: The nDTM Is a Theory of Public Language 182 6.2.3 Assumption 3: The nDTM Is a Non-referential Semantics 183 6.2.4 Assumption 4: The DTM Is Environmentally Narrow but Socially Wide 184 6.2.5 Assumption 5: The nDTM Is Not a Theory of Mind/Cognition 184 6.2.6 Assumption 6: The nDTM Is a Molecularist Theory 185 6.2.7 Assumption 7: The nDTM Is a “Prohibitory Semantics” 185 6.2.8 Assumption 8: The nDTM Is Not a Theory of Radical Translation 185 6.2.9 Assumption 9: Language Users Conform to Directives; They Do Not Have to Know or Interpret Them 186 6.3 General Structure of the nDTM 187 6.3.1 Example of a Toy Language 188 6.4 Definitions 191 6.4.1 Definition of Synonymy 191 6.4.2 Building Language Matrices 191 6.4.2.1 Data-type Structure 191 6.4.2.2 Syntactical Decomposition 193 6.4.3 The Definition of a Language Matrix 194 6.4.4 Definition of “Meaning” and “Knowing the Meaning of an Expression” 195 6.4.5 Relational Structures 196 6.4.6 The Definition of “Translation” 197 6.5 The DTM Without Open Languages 197 6.6 Compositionality 206 6.7 Meaning Extrapolation 210 References 213 Chapter 7: The nDTM Among Contemporaries 214 7.1 Chapter Overview 214 7.2 Ned Block’s Conceptual Role Semantics 215 7.3 Robert Brandom’s Inferential Role Semantics 220 7.4 Jaroslav Peregrin’s Rule Theory of Language 230 7.5 Back to Desiderata 235 References 243 Afterword 244 References 247 Index 248 Front Matter ....Pages i-xiv The Directival Theory of Meaning (Paweł Grabarczyk)....Pages 1-20 Aims and Ambitions of the DTM (Paweł Grabarczyk)....Pages 21-41 Troubles Ahead (Paweł Grabarczyk)....Pages 43-86 The DTM Among Classic Theories (Paweł Grabarczyk)....Pages 87-117 Stepping Outside the Original DTM (Paweł Grabarczyk)....Pages 119-167 New Directival Theory of Meaning (Paweł Grabarczyk)....Pages 169-201 The nDTM Among Contemporaries (Paweł Grabarczyk)....Pages 203-232 Back Matter ....Pages 233-238