Language and Meaning

Catalog description

This course examines the core issues in the philosophy of language, focusing on the nature of linguistic meaning. What is linguistic meaning? Are meanings things in the world, ideas in our minds, or something else? How does the meaning of a sentence depend on the meaning of the words that compose it? In what ways does the content we communicate go beyond the words we use? How is meaning related to grammar? In what ways does meaning depend on context? We will examine how philosophers and linguists have answered these questions.