How to understand language : a philosophical inquiry

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Title:

Author:

Weiss, Bernhard.

ISBN:

9781844651979

9781844651962

Personal Author:

Weiss, Bernhard.

Publication Information:

Durham : Acumen, 2010.

Physical Description:

xiii, 271 p. ; 24 cm.

Contents:

The puzzles of language -- The starting-point for analysis -- Analysing sentence-meaning -- Analysing synonomy -- Radical translation -- The structure of a theory of meaning -- Radical interpretation -- Linguistic norms, communication and radical interpretation -- Linguistic normativity -- Radical or robust? -- Language and community -- Rules and privacy : the problem -- Rules and privacy : the solution? -- Truth-conditions versus use-conditions.

Subject Term:

Linguistics -- Philosophy.

Language and languages.

Sprachphilosophie

Linguistik

Copies:

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Library	Material Type	Item Barcode	Shelf Number	Copy	Status
Searching... 1:IIEMSA	1:GEN-BOOK	33168025418605	401 W429H 2010	1	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

Why are philosophers, as opposed to, say, linguists and psychologists, puzzled by language? How should we attempt to shed philosophical light on the phenomenon of language? "How to Understand Language" frames its discussion by these two questions. The book begins by thinking about the reasons that language is hard to understand from a philosophical point of view and, armed with the fruits of that discussion, begins searching for an approach to these questions. After finding fault with approaches based on philosophical analysis and on translation it undertakes an extended investigation of the programme of constructing a theory of meaning. Donald Davidson's advocacy of that approach becomes pivotal; though, the book endorses his broad approach, it argues strongly against the roles both of truth theory and of radical interpretation.