Semantic realism, rigid designation, and dynamic semantics

Although information theoretic characterizations of human communication have become increasingly popular in linguistics, to date they have largely involved grafting probabilistic constructs onto older ideas about grammar. Similarities between human and digital communication have been strongly emphasized, and differences largely ignored. However, some of these differences matter: communication systems are based on predefined codes shared by every sender/receiver, whereas the distributions of words in natural languages guarantee that no speaker/hearer ever has access to an entire linguistic code, which seemingly undermines the idea that natural languages are probabilistic systems in any meaningful sense. This paper describes how the distributional properties of languages meet the various challenges arising from the differences between information systems and natural languages, along with the very different perspective on human communication these properties suggest. To illustrate this view, an account of the semantic function of personal names (a traditional linguistic stumbling block) is presented, describing the non-compositional, discriminative communicative process supported by the statistical and syntactic properties of names in the world’s languages. A broad description of how this account extends to the rest of human communication is also presented, along with examples of how its predictions are supported by analyses of English nouns and verbs.

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Commitment Without Consequences. A Carnapian Approach to Fictional Objects and Negative Existence Statements

10.26686/wgtn.17145746.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Michael Gilchrist

Keyword(s):

Critical Analysis ◽

Relativity Principle ◽

True Negative ◽

Kind Terms ◽

Fictional Objects ◽

Rigid Designation ◽

Novel Approach ◽

Fresh Perspective ◽

Amie Thomasson ◽

Over Time

<p>The overall aim of this thesis is to present a fresh perspective on three closely related areas of enquiry: Descriptivist theories of reference, Direct Reference theories and the Carnapian approach to questions of existence and identity. This perspective is developed and tested by a critical analysis of the work of a leading Carnapian theorist, Amie Thomasson, and by looking at some of the central problems associated with our talk of fictional objects. It concludes in an account of negative existence statements and fictional objects as possibly existing objects. In Chapter one I set out the key elements of Carnap’s approach, as that approach was developed over time and in dialogue with his colleague Quine. In Chapter two I explore the relation between the previously mentioned three areas of enquiry through an examination of Amie Thomasson’s brand of Carnapian meta-ontology. In Chapters four and five I develop the view that fictional objects are objects that meet the criteria of existence and identity of at least one linguistic framework but fail to meet the criteria of another, preferred framework. This provides the basis for a neo-Carnapian account of fictional objects in terms of the relations between linguistic frameworks, a novel approach to the questions surrounding such objects. In chapter five, the concluding chapter of the thesis, I further develop my explanation of how there can be truths about fictional and non-existent objects by giving an ontological version of John MacFarlane’s relativity principle. This paves the way for a neo-Carnapian analysis of true negative existence statements. Here I integrate the story I have told about fictional objects and the relations between linguistic frameworks with theories of reference and meaning. In particular, I incorporate a satisfactory concept of the rigid designation of ordinary proper names (and, potentially, of natural and artefactual kind terms). This then leads on to an explanation of how fictional objects, contra Kripke and many others, may reasonably said to be possible objects that, though they don’t exist, might exist under different circumstances.</p>

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Names, natural kind terms, and rigid designation

Philosophical Studies ◽

10.1007/bf00989694 ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 79 (3) ◽

pp. 259-281 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Danielle Macbeth

Keyword(s):

Natural Kind ◽

Natural Kind Terms ◽

Kind Terms ◽

Rigid Designation

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Commitment Without Consequences. A Carnapian Approach to Fictional Objects and Negative Existence Statements

10.26686/wgtn.17145746 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Michael Gilchrist

Keyword(s):

Critical Analysis ◽

Relativity Principle ◽

True Negative ◽

Kind Terms ◽

Fictional Objects ◽

Rigid Designation ◽

Novel Approach ◽

Fresh Perspective ◽

Amie Thomasson ◽

Over Time

<p>The overall aim of this thesis is to present a fresh perspective on three closely related areas of enquiry: Descriptivist theories of reference, Direct Reference theories and the Carnapian approach to questions of existence and identity. This perspective is developed and tested by a critical analysis of the work of a leading Carnapian theorist, Amie Thomasson, and by looking at some of the central problems associated with our talk of fictional objects. It concludes in an account of negative existence statements and fictional objects as possibly existing objects. In Chapter one I set out the key elements of Carnap’s approach, as that approach was developed over time and in dialogue with his colleague Quine. In Chapter two I explore the relation between the previously mentioned three areas of enquiry through an examination of Amie Thomasson’s brand of Carnapian meta-ontology. In Chapters four and five I develop the view that fictional objects are objects that meet the criteria of existence and identity of at least one linguistic framework but fail to meet the criteria of another, preferred framework. This provides the basis for a neo-Carnapian account of fictional objects in terms of the relations between linguistic frameworks, a novel approach to the questions surrounding such objects. In chapter five, the concluding chapter of the thesis, I further develop my explanation of how there can be truths about fictional and non-existent objects by giving an ontological version of John MacFarlane’s relativity principle. This paves the way for a neo-Carnapian analysis of true negative existence statements. Here I integrate the story I have told about fictional objects and the relations between linguistic frameworks with theories of reference and meaning. In particular, I incorporate a satisfactory concept of the rigid designation of ordinary proper names (and, potentially, of natural and artefactual kind terms). This then leads on to an explanation of how fictional objects, contra Kripke and many others, may reasonably said to be possible objects that, though they don’t exist, might exist under different circumstances.</p>

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An Information Theoretic Approach to Econometrics

10.1017/cbo9781139033848 ◽

2011 ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Author(s):

George G. Judge ◽

Ron C. Mittelhammer

Keyword(s):

Theoretic Approach ◽

Information Theoretic ◽

Information Theoretic Approach

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Assessing the Knowledge Base of Students: An Information Theoretic Approach to Testing

Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development ◽

10.1080/07481756.1986.12022831 ◽

1986 ◽

Vol 19 (3) ◽

pp. 116-130 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

James E. Bruno

Keyword(s):

Knowledge Base ◽

Theoretic Approach ◽

Information Theoretic ◽

Information Theoretic Approach

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Investigating the Multimodal Nature of Human Communication

Journal of Psychophysiology ◽

10.1027/0269-8803.23.2.63 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 23 (2) ◽

pp. 63-76 ◽

Cited By ~ 41

Author(s):

Silke Paulmann ◽

Sarah Jessen ◽

Sonja A. Kotz

Keyword(s):

Visual Information ◽

Empirical Studies ◽

Physical Property ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Accurate Information ◽

Human Communication ◽

Channel Condition ◽

Prosodic Cues ◽

Early Processing ◽

Related Potentials

The multimodal nature of human communication has been well established. Yet few empirical studies have systematically examined the widely held belief that this form of perception is facilitated in comparison to unimodal or bimodal perception. In the current experiment we first explored the processing of unimodally presented facial expressions. Furthermore, auditory (prosodic and/or lexical-semantic) information was presented together with the visual information to investigate the processing of bimodal (facial and prosodic cues) and multimodal (facial, lexic, and prosodic cues) human communication. Participants engaged in an identity identification task, while event-related potentials (ERPs) were being recorded to examine early processing mechanisms as reflected in the P200 and N300 component. While the former component has repeatedly been linked to physical property stimulus processing, the latter has been linked to more evaluative “meaning-related” processing. A direct relationship between P200 and N300 amplitude and the number of information channels present was found. The multimodal-channel condition elicited the smallest amplitude in the P200 and N300 components, followed by an increased amplitude in each component for the bimodal-channel condition. The largest amplitude was observed for the unimodal condition. These data suggest that multimodal information induces clear facilitation in comparison to unimodal or bimodal information. The advantage of multimodal perception as reflected in the P200 and N300 components may thus reflect one of the mechanisms allowing for fast and accurate information processing in human communication.

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