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Meanings Are Syntactically Individuated and Found in the Head
Author(s) -
Mcgilvray James
Publication year - 1998
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 - 10.1111/1468-0017.00076
Subject(s) - interpretation (philosophy) , syntax , meaning (existential) , linguistics , semantics (computer science) , epistemology , head (geology) , philosophy , principle of compositionality , semantic interpretation , computer science , geomorphology , programming language , geology
Expanding on some of Chomsky’s recently expressed views of meaning in a way that is consistent with his long‐held rationalist conception of mind, I show how syntax, broadly conceived, could individuate meanings and provide a science of meanings inside the head. Interpretation becomes a pragmatic matter, although a rationalist account of mind shows how internal meanings guide interpretation and, more generally, language use. In this view of meanings, interpretation, and mind, semantics as usually understood disappears.