Some reflections on Chomsky’s notion of reference

• Authors: Enrico Cipriani
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

In this paper, I will focus on Chomsky’s interpretation of the notion of reference. I will summarize Chomsky’s criticisms against the externalist interpretation of such notion, and I will then focus on the internalist (and syntactic) interpretation that the MIT linguist provides. Then I will focus on the relation between the internalist interpretation and the notion of truth, discussing in particular Casalegno and Hinzen’s objections: I will point out that truth does not represent a particular problem for the internalized reference. Finally, I will show how Chomsky explains, inside the internalist perspective, the phenomenon of communication. In Conclusions, I will sketch two important points.

Keywords

EN

internalized reference; internalist vs. subjective truth; communication; reference vs. referential acts; constitutional uniformity of speakers; I-language; truth conditions

• Publisher: Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Pawła II
• Journal: Linguistics Beyond and Within
• Year: 2016
• Volume: 2
• Pages: 44-60

Dates

published

2016-12-30

Contributors

author

Enrico Cipriani

Identifiers

DOI

10.31743/lingbaw.5637