LING 2504 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Dr. Seuss, Existential Clause, Definite Description
14 Dec 2015
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Language refers to things that exist in the real world: words and expressions are meaningful because they refer to. Problems with referential theory (singular term) 4 logical puzzles: Words are only meaningful because they stand for things, but you cannot make sentences out of strings of names negative existentials: we need connectors/transitional words, we can"t make claims about things that don"t exist. Frege"s puzzle of identity: pope= john francis, 1+1=2; 3-1=2, reference & sense sense is the way the referent is presented. Substitutivity: dr. seuss = theodor geisel, if you know both of the names, you should be able to substitute one in for another especially when it comes to belief statements (cid:1) (cid:1) They refer to things and help to, somewhat, make sense of the referential theory. Giving us the big picture of human nature, cognition and how that. How does language access truth language is our way of connecting.
