Language in the World A Philosophical Enquiry [Paperback]

A book-length treatment of relation between words and meaning using possible-worlds semantics.What makes the words we speak mean what they do? M. J. Cresswell answers this question in a book-length examination of the connection between meaning and linguistic behaviour from the point of view of possible-worlds semantics.What makes the words we speak mean what they do? M. J. Cresswell answers this question in a book-length examination of the connection between meaning and linguistic behaviour from the point of view of possible-worlds semantics.What makes the words we speak mean what they do? Possible-worlds semantics articulates the view that the meanings of words contribute to determining which possible worlds would make a sentence true, and which would make it false. In the first book-length examination from this viewpoint, M.J. Cresswell argues that the nonsemantic facts on which semantic facts supervene are facts about the causal interactions between the linguistic behavior of speakers and the facts in the world that they are speaking about.Preface; Introduction; 1. A simple formal language; 2. Predicates and functors; 3. The isomorphism problem; 4. Quantification; 5. Transmundism; 6. Putnam's 'Meaning of 'meaning''; 7. Lewis on languages and language; 8. Causation and semantics; 9. Belief-desire psychology; 10. Direct knowledge; References; Index. The discussion is extremely thorough and clear, and the dedicated reader with almost no technical sophistication will be able to gain a solid grasp of the system. This is an admirable accomplishment. The Philosophical Review