Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Semantics and the objects of assertion

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Linguistics and Philosophy Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper is about the relationship between two questions: the question of what the objects of assertion are and the question of how best to theorise about ‘shifty’ phenomena like modality and tense. I argue that the relationship between these two questions is less direct than is often supposed. I then explore the consequences of this for a number of debates in the philosophy of language.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Anand, P. (2006). De de se. Ph.D. thesis, MIT.

  • Anand P., Nevins A. (2004) Shifty operators in changing contexts. In: Young R.B. (Ed.) Proceedings from semantics and linguistic theory XIV. Cornell University, CLC Publications, Ithaca, NY

    Google Scholar 

  • Austin J.L. (1971) Philosophical papers (2nd Edn.). Clarendon Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Cappelen H., Hawthorne J. (2009) Relativism and monadic truth. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Cresswell M.J. (1990) Entities and indices. Kluwer, Dordrecht

    Google Scholar 

  • Dowty D. (1982) Tenses, time adverbs, and compositional semantic theory. Linguistics and Philosophy 5: 23–55

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dummett M. (1991) The logical basis of metaphysics. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Egan A., Hawthorne J., Weatherson B. (2005) Epistemic modals in context. In: Preyer G., Peter G. (eds) Contextualism in philosophy. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Heim, I. (2004). Lectures notes on indexicality. Notes for class taught at MIT.

  • Heim I. (2008) Features on bound pronouns. In: Harbour D., Adger D., Béjar S. (eds) Phi-theory: Phi-features across modules and interfaces. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Heim I., Kratzer A. (1998) Semantics in generative grammar. Blackwell, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaplan D. (1989) Demonstratives. In: Almog J., Perry J., Wettstein H. (eds) Themes from Kaplan. Oxford University Press, New York, pp 481–563

    Google Scholar 

  • King J.C. (2003) Tense, modality, and semantic values. Philosophical Perspectives 17: 195–245

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kratzer A. (1998) More structural analogies between pronouns and tenses. In: Strolovitch D., Lawson A. (eds) Proceedings from semantics and linguistic theory VIII. Cornell University, CLC Publications, Ithaca, NY

    Google Scholar 

  • Kratzer A. (2009) Making a pronoun: Fake indexicals as windows into the properties of pronouns. Linguistic Inquiry 40: 187–237

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kusumoto, K. (1999). Tense in embedded contexts. Ph.D. thesis, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

  • Kusumoto K. (2005) On the quantification over times in natural language. Natural Language Semantics 13: 317–357

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lasersohn P. (1999) Pragmatic halos. Language 75: 522–551

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, D. K. (1979). Attitudes de dicto and de se. Philosophical Review, 88, 513–543. (Reprinted in Lewis, D. K. (1983). Philosophical papers (Vol. I, pp. 133–159). New York: Oxford University Press.)

  • Lewis, D. K. (1980). Index, context, and content. In S. Kanger & S. Öhman (Eds.), Philosophy and grammar (pp. 79–100). Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing Company. (Reprinted in Lewis, D. K. (1998). Papers in philosophical logic (pp. 21–44). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.)

  • MacFarlane J. (2003) Future contingents and relative truth. The Philosophical Quarterly 53: 321–336

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • MacFarlane J. (2009) Nonindexical Contextualism. Synthese 166: 231–250

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ninan D. (2010) De se attitudes: Ascription and communication. Philosophy Compass 5: 551–567

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Partee B. (1973) Some structural analogies between tenses and pronouns in English. The Journal of Philosophy 70: 601–609

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Percus O. (2000) Constraints on some other variables in syntax. Natural Language Semantics 8: 173–229

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Portner P. (2009) Modality. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Prior A.N. (1968) Papers on time and tense. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Recanati F. (2004) Literal meaning. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Recanati F. (2007) Perspectival thought: A plea for (moderate) relativism. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Richard M. (1982) Tense, propositions, and meanings. Philosophical Studies 41: 337–351

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schaffer, J. (forthcoming a). Necessitarian propositions. Synthese.

  • Schaffer, J. (forthcoming b). Perspective in taste predicates and epistemic modals. In A. Egan & B. Weatherson (Eds.), Epistemic modality. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

  • Schlenker, P. (1999). Propositional attitudes and indexicality: A cross-categorial approach. Ph.D. thesis, MIT.

  • Schlenker P. (2003) A plea for monsters. Linguistics and Philosophy 26: 29–120

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schlenker P. (2004) Person and binding (a partial survey). Italian Journal of Linguistics/Rivista di Linguistica 16: 155–218

    Google Scholar 

  • Schlenker P. (2006) Ontological symmetry in language: A brief manifesto. Mind and Language 21: 504–539

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stalnaker, R. (1978). Assertion. In P. Cole (Ed.), Syntax and Semantics 9: Pragmatics (pp. 315–332). New York: Academic Press. (Reprinted in Schlenker, P. (1999). Context and content (pp. 78–95). New York: Oxford University Press.)

  • Stanley J. (1997a) Names and rigid designation. In: Hale B., Wright C. (eds) A companion to philosophy of language. Blackwell Publishers, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Stanley J. (1997b) Rigidity and content. In: R. Heck (Ed.) Language, thought, and logic. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 131–156

    Google Scholar 

  • Stanley J. (2000) Context and logical form. Linguistics and Philosophy 23: 391–434

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stanley J. (2002) Modality and what is said. Philosophical Perspectives 16: 321–344

    Google Scholar 

  • Stanley, J. (2005). Review of François Recanati, literal meaning. In Notre Dame philosophical reviews. (Reprinted in Stanley, J. (2007). Language in context (pp. 231–247). Oxford: Clarendon Press.)

  • Stephenson T. (2007) Judge dependence, epistemic modals, and predicates of personal taste. Linguistics and Philosophy 30: 487–525

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stone, M. (1997). The anaphoric parallel between modality and tense. Technical report, University of Pennsylvania.

  • von Stechow, A. (2002). Binding by verbs: Tense, person and mood under attitudes. Unpublished manuscript.

  • von Stechow, A. (2003). Feature deletion under semantic binding: Tense, person, and mood under verbal quantifiers. In M. Kadawaki & S. Kawahara (Eds.), Proceedings of NELS (Vol. 33, pp. 379–404). Charleston: BookSurge Publishing.

  • Weatherson B. (2008) Attitudes and relativism. Philosophical Perspectives 22: 527–544

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williamson T. (2000) Knowledge and its limits. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Yalcin S. (2007) Epistemic modals. Mind 116: 983–1026

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Arché, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Scotland, UK

    Dilip Ninan

Authors
  1. Dilip Ninan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dilip Ninan.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Ninan, D. Semantics and the objects of assertion. Linguist and Philos 33, 355–380 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10988-011-9084-7

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10988-011-9084-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation