The ontology of words: Realism, nominalism, and eliminativism

Philosophy Compass 15 (7):e12691 (2020)
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Abstract

What are words? What makes two token words tokens of the same word-type? Are words abstract entities, or are they (merely) collections of tokens? The ontology of words tries to provide answers to these, and related questions. This article provides an overview of some of the most prominent views proposed in the literature, with a particular focus on the debate between type-realist, nominalist, and eliminativist ontologies of words.

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10.1111/phc3.12691

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James (J.T.M.) Miller
Durham University

Citations of this work

Words, Species, and Kinds.J. T. M. Miller - 2021 - Metaphysics 4 (1):18–31.
Unspeakable names.Eliot Michaelson - 2023 - Synthese 201 (2):1-19.
The laws of modality.Matthew Tugby - 2022 - Philosophical Studies 179 (8):2597-2618.
Sameness of Word.James Miller - 2022 - European Journal of Analytic Philosophy 18 (2):2-26.

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References found in this work

Word and Object.Willard Van Orman Quine - 1960 - Les Etudes Philosophiques 17 (2):278-279.
Words.David Kaplan - 1990 - Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 64 (1):93-119.

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