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Semantics aims to describe the significance (or meaning) of linguistic expressions in a systematic way. Metasemantics, or foundational semantics, asks how expressions gain their significance in the first place - what makes it the case that expressions mean what they do. Metasemantics has recently been discussed extensively by philosophers of language, philosophers of mind, and philosophically minded linguists and psychologists. A large concern is semantic indeterminacy, the worry that there is no fact of the matter as to the semantic significance of our words. Ori Simchen offers a distinctly metasemantic strategy to counter this threat. Semantics, Metasemantics, Aboutness is the first book-length treatment of metasemantics and its relation to the thriving research program of truth-conditional semantics.
How do linguistic expressions acquire their specific semantic significance, and can this process withstand the challenge of semantic indeterminacy? Ori Simchen, a philosopher specializing in the philosophy of language, investigates the foundational mechanisms of meaning. He argues for a specific metasemantic framework that bridges the gap between how words function and the underlying conditions that grant them their truth-conditional content.
What You Will Find
Scope Limits
Experts recognize this work as a significant contribution to the specialized field of metasemantics, particularly for its attempt to reconcile foundational meaning with truth-conditional models. Readers frequently note the high level of academic density and the rigorous logical structure required to engage with Simchen's arguments.
Page Count:
177
Publication Date:
2017-01-01
Publisher:
OUP Oxford
ISBN-10:
0192509993
ISBN-13:
9780192509994
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