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The Current State of (Radical) Pragmatics in the Cognitive Sciences
Author(s) -
Breheny Richard
Publication year - 2002
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 - 10.1111/1468-0017.00194
Subject(s) - pragmatics , argument (complex analysis) , content (measure theory) , meaning (existential) , epistemology , focus (optics) , linguistics , philosophy of language , cognition , psychology , philosophy , cognitive science , metaphysics , chemistry , mathematics , mathematical analysis , biochemistry , physics , optics , neuroscience
This paper considers some issues for traditional and radical views of the semantic content of utterances. It suggests that, as the radical view denies that linguistic meaning solely determines explicit content, it is required to come up with an alternative account of content. We focus on cognitively oriented radical theories and argue that none of the current alternatives for delimiting content is adequate. An alternative radical account of content is sketched. We also consider Stanley’s (2000) binding argument in support of the traditional view and suggest that it fails as it is based on an overly strong conception of binding in natural language.