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Meaning and responsibility
Author(s) -
Buchanan Ray,
Schiller Henry Ian
Publication year - 2023
Publication title -
mind and language
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.905
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1468-0017
pISSN - 0268-1064
DOI - 10.1111/mila.12422
Subject(s) - assertion , meaning (existential) , action (physics) , literal (mathematical logic) , linguistics , speech act , subject (documents) , epistemology , psychology , philosophy , computer science , physics , quantum mechanics , library science , programming language
In performing an act of assertion we are sometimes responsible for more than the content of the literal meaning of the words we have used, sometimes less. A recently popular research program seeks to explain certain of the commitments we make in speech in terms of responsiveness to the conversational subject matter. We raise some issues for this view with the aim of providing a more general account of linguistic commitment: one that is grounded in a more general action‐theoretic notion of responsibility.