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Nelson goodman and the logical articulation of nominal compounds

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Abstract

Nelson Goodman claims to have given us a criterion for likeness of meaning that is more stringent than simple coextensiveness and yet that avoids the familiar extentionalist objections. The notion of a nominal compound plays a key role in his account. I show that Goodman's comments concerning this notion are inadequate, that his comments concerning expressions like ‘unicorn-picture’ are subject to two serious objections: (1) they don't support his claims about likeness of meaning (i.e., the claims that his criterion is more stringent than simple coextensiveness) and (2) they make English an unlearnable language.

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References

  1. Nelson Goodman, ‘On Likeness of Meaning’, in Problems and Projects, The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1972, p. 225.

  2. Nelson Goodman, Problems and Projects, p. 205.

  3. Ibid., p. 222.

  4. Ibid., p. 233.

  5. Ibid., p. 227.

  6. Ibid., p. 205.

  7. Ibid., p. 232.

  8. I use ‘girlfriend’ here in the sense of ‘girl who is a friend’ and ignore the fact that the term is sometimes used in a way that leaves friendship out of the picture almost entirely.

  9. Nelson Goodman, Languages of Art, Bobbs-Merrill, 1968.

  10. Nelson Goodman, Problems and Projects, pp. 246–272.

  11. Ibid., pp. 122–132.

  12. Ibid., p. 266.

  13. Ibid., p. 267.

  14. On this way of speaking, ‘unicorn’ in ‘I shot a unicorn’ designates but it does not designate any flesh and blood thing, i.e., it designates the null class.

  15. Nelson Goodman, Problems and Projects, p. 122.

  16. Donald Davidson, ‘Theories of Meaning and Learnable Languages’, in Proceedings of the 1964 International Congress for Logic, Methodology and the Philosophy of Science, North-Holland, pp. 383–95.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Minnesota, Minnesota, USA

    Michael D. Root

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  1. Michael D. Root
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I would like to thank Nelson Goodman for his comments on an earlier draft of this paper; his comments helped me to recognize at least some of my mistakes.

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Root, M.D. Nelson goodman and the logical articulation of nominal compounds. Linguistics and Philosophy 1, 259–271 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00351107

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00351107

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