Summary

What is meaning? How is linguistic communication possible? What is the nature of language? What is the relationship between language and the world? How do metaphors work? The Philosophy of Language, considered the essential text in its field, is an excellent introduction to such fundamental questions. This revised edition collects 39 of the most important articles in the field, making it the most comprehensive volume on the subject. Several new articles are featured, including recent influential work by W.V. Quine, Donald Davidson, and John Searle, along with an entirely new section on interpretation and translation. Other selections include classic articles by such distinguished philosophers as Gottlob Frege, Bertrand Russell, P.F. Strawson, J.L. Austin, Hilary Putnam, and David Kaplan. The articles, arranged chronologically, represent evolving and varying approaches to the philosophy of language, with many articles building upon earlier ones or critically discussing them. Eight sections cover the central issues: Truth and Meaning, Speech Acts, Reference Descriptions, Names and Demonstratives, Propositional Attitudes, Metaphor, Interpretation and Translation, and the Nature of Language. The volume's introduction has been substantially expanded to give students a better background to the issues and explain the connections between them; and a bibliography of suggested further readings follows each section. Students of the philosophy of language will find this text to be the most comprehensive and up-to-date volume of its kind.