Speaker’s Referent and Semantic Referent in Interpretive Interaction

• Authors: Palle Leth
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

In this paper I argue that the notions of speaker’s reference and semantic reference-used by Kripke in order to counter the contentious consequences of Donnellan’s distinction between the referential use and the attributive use of definite descriptions-do not have any application in the interpretive interaction between speaker and hearer. Hearers are always concerned with speaker’s reference. Either, in cases of cooperation, as presented as such by the speaker or, in cases of conflict, as perceived as such by the hearer. Any claim as to semantic reference is irrelevant for the purposes of communication and conversation. To the extent that the purpose of semantic theory is to account for linguistic communication, there is no reason to take definite descriptions to have semantic reference.

Keywords

EN

definite descriptions; speaker’s referent; semantic referent; semantics/pragmatics; conversational interaction; interpretation

• Publisher: Polskie Towarzystwo Semiotyczne
• Journal: Studia Semiotyczne
• Year: 2020
• Volume: 34
• Issue: 2

Dates

published

2020-12-03

Contributors

author

Palle Leth