Philosophy Stack Exchange
Philosophy Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [philosophy-of-language]

for philosophical questions concerning the nature, origins, and usage of natural language

The philosophy of language (Wikipedia) deals with the nature, origins, and usage of natural language. It explores the nature of linguistic truth and meaning, theories of reference, the cognition of language, pragmatics, and other topics.

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Is a human language a prison for a mind?

I am dealing with a question whether is a human language a prison for a mind and also whether is there something above a human language. my progress: I have read articles on wikipedia about metalinguistics and linguistic determinism. There are eight…
Jan
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What are the implications of ordinary language philosophy on the study of language?

The etymology of a word does not appear to have any significance other than historical. How can we characterize the connection between the original formation of a word and its current use, or its current meaning derived from its original one? For…
Jon
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Are normative definitions possible in ordinary language philosophy?

If I recall correctly, analyzing a concept in ordinary-language philosophy involved taking inventory on how the term for the concept is used by the speakers of the language across contexts, thus revealing a family of related concepts for which the…
James Grossmann
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Is it feasible to alter "well-established" languages?

I have met this problem several times. I think many natural languages are not really particularly usefully structured, because they contain things like irregularities and unnecessary syntax variations. Like in the logical language Lojban…
mavavilj
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What does "I" really mean?

When we refer to a human being by "I"/"you"/"he"/"she"/"Mary", what do we really mean? The more I think about it, the more confused I get. Do we mean living body or emotional/psychological world or mind? Or do we mean integrity of all of the…
fiktor
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How is meaning-holism a problem for the analytic-synthetic distinction?

I read Quine's Two Dogmas, and I also read two of Harman's papers:'Doubts about Conceptual Analysis,' and 'Analyticity Regained?' I have a couple of observations: Both Quine and Harman adopt a kind of holism. Quine thinks that analyticity is not to…
objectivesea
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Is it possible that philosophical problems arise because of confusions on our language?

People ask: "Who am I" or "What is a matter" but: Is it possible that those questions arise because of confusions in our language? The questions seem intangible and hugely based on the luxuries that our language can provide us. Or maybe not…
John F101
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Is 'is' a verb?

Generally, or at least in my experience, 'to be' is introduced as a verb. But is it? It doesn't appear to describe a change as in 'I kicked a ball' or 'he picked the pen up'. It describes things as they are as in 'this ball is blue', and how they…
Mozibur Ullah
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Forming a countermodel to support the semantics of Stalnaker's Conditional?

How might one go about forming a countermodel (against the material conditional) to show that a given argument is valid through Stalnaker's conditional? As I understand it (and I admit that my knowledge is likely too broad to say anything…
PrivateProsciutto
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Yablo's notion of adding truth

I try to stress a point I've already made in Stephen Yablo's Aboutness and logical subtraction, but from another perspective. From what Yablo is saying in his appendix to Aboutness (http://assets.press.princeton.edu/releases/m10013.pdf) in section…
PwNzDust
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Are there any introductory video courses about philosophy of language on the internet?

I want to study the philosophy of language. Are there any video courses about philosophy of language on the internet?
Ave Maleficum
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How come that a certain language is more logical as compared to another language?

Is it acceptable to say that a specific language is more logical than another language? To give an example, I always see the argument, that Latin (and also Japanese) is more logical than English.
chrismsawi
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Why are exclamations like "Ouch!" not considered propositions?

Doesn't "Ouch!" mean "I am experiencing discomfort", which is a proposition?
Casebash
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What does Putnam mean by "indexicality"?

I just studied Putnams "Meaning and Reference" (http://home.sandiego.edu/~baber/analytic/Putnam1973.pdf) Then he talks about indexicality . What exactly does it mean when we say that a word, or some kind of expression is 'indexical'? Putnam…
Applied mathematician
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What is the relevance of Kripke’s modal argument against Frege’s description theory of names?

I am trying to learn a bit about the philosophy of language and I am puzzled by Kripke’s modal argument against Frege’s description theory of names. I’m guessing, and guessing is what I mean since I have never been any good at “real” philosophy,…
nwr
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