The myth of reverse compositionality
Philosophical Studies 125 (2):251 - 275 (2005)
| Abstract | In the context of debates about what form a theory of meaning should take, it is sometimes claimed that one cannot understand an intersective modifier-head construction (e.g., ‘pet fish’) without understanding its lexical parts. Neo-Russellians like Fodor and Lepore contend that non-denotationalist theories of meaning, such as prototype theory and theory theory, cannot explain why this is so, because they cannot provide for the ‘reverse compositional’ character of meaning. I argue that reverse compositionality is a red herring in these debates. I begin by setting out some positive arguments for reverse compositionality and showing that they fail. Then I show that the principle of reverse compositionality has two big strikes against it. First, it is incompatible with all theories of meaning on the market, including the denotationalism favored by neo-Russellians. Second, it explains nothing that is not already explained by its venerable predecessor, the principle of (forward) compositionality. | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,709 |
| External links |
 |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesJerry A. Fodor & Ernest Lepore (2002). The Compositionality Papers. Oxford University Press.
Peter Pagin (2003). Communication and Strong Compositionality. Journal of Philosophical Logic 32 (3):287-322.
Antonio Rauti (2009). Can We Derive the Principle of Compositionality (If We Deflate Understanding)? Dialectica 63 (2):157-174.
Jerry A. Fodor & Ernest LePore (1996). The Red Herring and the Pet Fish: Why Concepts Still Can't Be Prototypes. Cognition 58:253-70.
Hannes Leitgeb (2008). An Impossibility Result on Semantic Resemblance. Dialectica 62 (3):293-306.
Jerry Fodor & Ernie Lepore (2001). Why Compositionality Won't Go Away: Reflections on Horwich's 'Deflationary' Theory. Ratio 14 (4):350–368.
Douglas Patterson (2005). Learnability and Compositionality. Mind and Language 20 (3):326–352.
Kent Johnson (2006). On the Nature of Reverse Compositionality. Erkenntnis 64 (1):37 - 60.
Ernie Lepore (2004). Out of Context. Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association 78 (2):77 - 94.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2009-01-28Total downloads26 ( #47,731 of 550,802 )Recent downloads (6 months)1 ( #63,425 of 550,802 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
