Critical pragmatics
Subtitle: an inquiry into reference and communication
By: Kepa Korta and John Perry
Contributors: Perry, John, 1943-
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Cambridge, UK; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 178
ISBN-13: 9780521764971; 9780521748674
Subjects: Communication; Philosophy; Reference (Linguistics); Language and languages; Semantics
Description: "Critical Pragmatics develops three ideas: language is a way of doing things with words; meanings of phrases and contents of utterances derive ultimately from human intentions; and language combines with other factors to allow humans to achieve communicative goals. In this book, Kepa Korta and John Perry explain why critical pragmatics provides a coherent picture of how parts of language study fit together within the broader picture of human thought and action. They focus on issues about singular reference, that is, talk about particular things, places or people, which have played a central role in the philosophy of language for more than a century. They argue that attention to the 'reflexive' or 'utterance-bound' contents of utterances sheds new light on these old problems. Their important study proposes a new approach to pragmatics and should be of wide interest to philosophers of language and linguists"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 170-174) and index.
Table of contents: title: 1. Introduction; title: 2. A short history of reference; title: 3. Acts, roles and singular reference; title: 4. Elements of reference; title: 5. Demonstratives; title: 6. Context sensitivity and indexicals; title: 7. Names; title: 8. Definite descriptions; title: 9. Implicit reference and unarticulated constituents; title: 10. Locutionary content and speech acts; title: 11. Reference and implicature; title: 12. Semantics, pragmatics and critical pragmatics; title: 13. Harnessing information; title: 14. Examples.