Philosophy of Language
Objectives
a) Acquiring knowledge of the most important issues in philosophy of language.
b) Acquiring the capacity of analyzing texts, reconstructing implicit meaning, and justifying text interpretation.
c) Acquiring the critical capacity of comparing different theories.
d) Acquiring basic knowledge of the interrelations between linguistics and philosophy of language
e) Identifying the different aspects in the phenomenological analysis of language
f) Understanding the different relations between philosophy of language and ontology, anthropology, and philosophy of mind.
General characterization
Code
01102020
Credits
6.0
Responsible teacher
Pedro Rui do Espírito Santo Abreu
Hours
Weekly - 4
Total - 168
Teaching language
Portuguese
Prerequisites
Available soon
Bibliography
Aristotle. (1991). Topics. In J. Barnes (Ed.), The complete works of Aristotle, vol. I. Princeton University Press.
Austin, J. L. (1962). How to do things with words. Oxford University Press.
Grice, P. (1975). Logic and conversation. In P. Cole & J. Morgan (Eds.), Syntax and semantics 3: Speech acts (pp. 41–58). Academic Press.
Huang, Y. (2014). Pragmatics. Oxford University Press.
Levinson, S. (2000). Presumptive meanings: The theory of generalized conversational implicature. MIT Press.
Macagno, F., & Walton, D. (2014). Emotive language in argumentation. Cambridge University Press.
Stalnaker, R. (1974). Pragmatic presuppositions. In M. Munitz & P. Unger (Eds.), Semantics and philosophy (pp. 197–214). New York University Press.
Stalnaker, R. (2002). Common ground. Linguistics and Philosophy, 25, 701– 721.
Stevenson, C. (1944). Ethics and language. Yale University Press. von Fintel, K. (2008). What is Presupposition Accommodation, Again? Philosophical Perspectives, 22(1), 137–170.
Teaching method
The classes will be taught combining different teaching methods, including presentations and small-group activities. The topics addressed during the course will be taught through presentations, interpretations, and discussions of the theories of the most important authors, and the application of the theoretical instruments - through exercises to be performed individually and in whole class discussions.
Evaluation method
Assessment - A test, divided in a theoretical part (questions) and practical exercises.(60%), A written essay(30%), Attendance and participation in classroom activities.(10%)
Subject matter
The course is intended to outline the historical evolution (from Aristotle’s Topics to the modern developments) of some crucial concepts in philosophy of language, and in particular the relationship between language and context. The course is thematically organized, focusing on topics of semantics (the logic of definition, reference) and pragmatics (implicatures, presupposition, speech acts, emotive language).
Topics:
- The logic-semantic system of Aristotle’s Topics
- The predicables and the dialectical inferences
- The types of definition and the relationship with the other predicables
- Suppositio and the problem of reference
- Significatio
- The problem of emotive language (Hare, Stevenson)
- Persuasive definition (Stevenson)
- Speech acts (Austin) - Implicatures (Grice; Horn; Levinson)
- Presupposition (semantic and pragmatic)