‘Nobody Loves Me’: Quantification and Context
Philosophical Studies 130 (2):377 - 397 (2006)
Abstract
In my paper, I present two competing perspectives on the foundational problem (as opposed to the descriptive problem) of quantifier domain restriction: the objective perspective on context (OPC) and the intentional perspective on context (IPC). According to OPC, the relevant domain for a quantified sentence is determined by objective facts of the context of utterance. In contrast, according to IPC, we must consider certain features of the speaker’s intention in order to determine the proposition expressed. My goal is to offer a plausible and fair reconstruction of IPC. Drawing a parallel between quantifier domain restriction and standard cases of context dependence as indexicality, I argue that the speaker’s intentions can play a semantic role only if they satisfy an Availability Constraint: an intention must be made available or communicated to the addressee, and for that purpose the speaker can exploit any feature of the objective context (words, gestures, relevance or uniqueness of either the quantificational domain or of the referent in the context of utterance). An intention satisfying the Availability Constraint must be something that a hearer in normal circumstances is able to work out by relying on the physical surroundings of the utterance situation, on utterances exchanged during the previous conversation, and on background knowledge shared by speaker and addressee.Author's Profile
DOI
10.1007/s11098-004-5749-1
My notes
Similar books and articles
How to Refer: Objective Context vs. Intentional Context.Claudia Bianchi - 2003 - In P. Blackburn, C. Ghidini, R. Turner & F. Giunchiglia (eds.), Proceedings of the Fourth International and Interdisciplinary Conference on Modeling and Using Context (Context'03), Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, Vol. 2680. Springer.
Context of utterance and intended context.Claudia Bianchi - 2001 - Lecture Notes in Computer Science 2116:73-86.
Quantification and Conversation.Chad Carmichael - 2012 - In Joseph Keim Campbell, Michael O'Rourke & Harry S. Silverstein (eds.), Reference and Referring: Topics in Contemporary Philosophy. MIT Press. pp. 305-323.
Inferences in context : contextualism, inferentialism and the concept of universal quantification.Chiara Tabet - unknown
John Buridan on the bearer of logical relations.Ernesto Perini-Santos - 2008 - Logica Universalis 2 (1):59-70.
Analytics
Added to PP
2009-01-28
Downloads
94 (#133,137)
6 months
1 (#452,962)
2009-01-28
Downloads
94 (#133,137)
6 months
1 (#452,962)
Historical graph of downloads
Author's Profile
Citations of this work
Flexible Contextualism about Deontic Modals: A Puzzle about Information-Sensitivity.J. L. Dowell - 2013 - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 56 (2-3):149-178.
How to do things with (recorded) words.Claudia Bianchi - 2014 - Philosophical Studies 167 (2):485-495.
Truth-assessment Methodology and the Case against the Relativist Case 1 a gainst Contextualism about Deontic Modals.J. L. Dowell - 2017 - Res Philosophica 94 (3):325-357.
References found in this work
Demonstratives: An Essay on the Semantics, Logic, Metaphysics and Epistemology of Demonstratives and other Indexicals.David Kaplan - 1989 - In Joseph Almog, John Perry & Howard Wettstein (eds.), Themes From Kaplan. Oxford University Press. pp. 481-563.
Themes From Kaplan.Joseph Almog, John Perry & Howard Wettstein (eds.) - 1989 - Oxford University Press.
Context and Content: Essays on Intentionality in Speech and Thought.Robert Stalnaker - 1999 - Oxford University Press UK.
Linguistic Communication and Speech Acts.Kent Bach & Robert M. Harnish - 1979 - Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
On Quantifier Domain Restriction.Jason Stanley & Zoltán Gendler Szabó - 2000 - Mind and Language 15 (2-3):219--61.