Undergraduate and graduate students of semantics, linguistics, cognitive psychology, and philosophy of language will now be able to encounter all of the important theoretical debates of modern semantics in a single volume. Selections begin with the classic essay by Mill, “Of Names and Propositions,” include such standards as “General Semantics” by Lewis and “Actualism” by Plantinga, and conclude with a chapter on “Linguistic Approaches to Semantics.”
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Preface
General Introduction
Jay L. Garfield and Murray Kiteley
I. THE BEGINNINGS
Introduction
Of Names and Propositions
John Stuart Mill
On Sense and Nominatum
Gottlob Frege
The Semantic Conception of Truth and the Foundations of Semantics Alfred
Tarski
On Denoting
Bertrand Russell
II. ON DESCRIPTIONS
Introduction
On Referring
P. F. Strawson
Mr. Strawson on Referring
Bertrand Russell
Meaning and Necessity
Rudolf Carnap
Reference and Definite Descriptions
Keith Donnellan
Speaker’s Reference and Semantic Reference
Saul Kripke
Presupposition and Two-Dimensional Logic
Merrie Bergmann
Dthat
David Kaplan
On the Logic of Demonstratives
David Kaplan
III. ON TARSKI
Introduction
Truth and Meaning
Donald Davidson
Tarski’s Theory of Truth
Hartry Field
Physicalism and Primitive Denotation: Field on Tarski
John McDowell
IV. INTENSIONALITY
Introduction
Quantifiers and Propositional Attitudes
W. V. O. Quine
On Saying That
Donald Davidson
An Overview of Montague Semantics
Steven Weisler
Subjectivity’s Bailiwick and the Person of Its Bailiff
Murray Kiteley
V. THE STRUCTURE OF MEANING
Introduction
Two Types of Quantifiers
Norbert Hornstein
A Logical Theory of Verb-Phrase Deletion
Ivan A. Sag
Structured Meanings
Max Cresswell
Structural Ambiguity
Max Cresswell
VI. POSSIBLE WORLDS
Introduction
Propositions
Robert Stalnaker
Possible Worlds
David Lewis
Actualism and Possible Worlds
Alvin Plantinga
The Trouble with Possible Worlds
William Lycan
VII. PRAGMATICS
Introduction
On Specificity
Annabel Cormack and
Ruth Kempson
Metaphorese
Harold Skulsky
Metaphorical Assertions
Merrie Bergmann
The Problem of the Essential Indexical
John Perry
References
JAY L. GARFIELD, an associate professor of philosophy in the School of Communications and Cognitive Science at Hampshire College, is also a member of the Core Faculty of the University of Massachusetts Cognitive Science Institute. His previous books are Belief in Psychology, Cognitive Science: An Introduction, and Foundations of Cognitive Science: The Essential Readings.
MURRAY KITELEY is the Sophia Smith Professor Emertius of Philosophy at Smith College, in Northampton, Massachusetts.