Semantics/pragmatics distinction
Abstract
Most people working on linguistic meaning or communication assume that semantics and pragmatics are distinct domains, yet there is still little consensus on how the distinction is to be drawn. The position defended in this paper is that the semantics/pragmatics distinction holds between (context-invariant) encoded linguistic meaning and speaker meaning. Two other ‘minimalist’ positions on semantics are explored and found wanting: Kent Bach’s view that there is a narrow semantic notion of context which is responsible for providing semantic values for a small number of indexicals, and Herman Cappelen and Ernie Lepore’s view that semantics includes the provision of values for all indexicals, even though these depend on the speaker’s communicative intentions. Finally, some implications are considered for the favoured semantics/pragmatics distinction of the fact that there are linguistic elements (lexical and syntactic) which do not contribute to truth-conditional content but rather provide guidance on pragmatic inference.Author's Profile
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Similar books and articles
The Semantics Pragmatics Distinction: What it is and Why it Matters.Kent Bach - 1997 - In K. Turner (ed.), The Semantics-Pragmatics Interface From Different Points of View. Elsevier. pp. 65--84.
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The Received Distinction Between Pragmatics, Syntax and Semantics.Charles Sayward - 1974 - Foundations of Language 11:97-104.
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Citations of this work
A Dual Aspect Account of Moral Language.Caj Strandberg - 2012 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 84 (1):87-122.
Giorgione was so-called because of his name.Kent Bach - 2002 - Philosophical Perspectives 16:73-103.
Embedding irony and the semantics/pragmatics distinction.Mihaela Popa-Wyatt - 2019 - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 62 (6):674-699.