Introduction to the Philosophy of Language
(Fall 2011)
Office: SBS 115C Hours: Wed/Fri 12-1 and by appointment
email: cohens@arizona.edu
Assignments: All reading assignments are from Philosophy of Language, William Lycan
You should read the material by the date listed.
- 8/26--Chapters 1 & 2
- 9/2--Chapter 3
- 9/9--Chapter 4
- 9/16--Chapter 5
- 9/28--Chapter 6
- 10/5--Chapter 7
- Midterm Paper Assignment--Posted on Oct 5, due on Oct 14
- 10/12--Chapter 8
- 10/14--NO CLASS
- 10/26--Chapter 9
- 11/2--Chapter 10
- 11/11--NO CLASS
- 11/30--Chapters 11,12,13
- 12/2--LAST DAY OF CLASS--Take-home final will be posted on website--see below
- 12/14--Final Exam Due
Final Exam
Introduction to Philosophy of Language
Fall/2011
Answer 2 questions:
(1) Explain the distinction between speaker meaning and sentence meaning. How does Grice view the relation between them? Explain Grice's theories of speaker and sentence meaning. What are the most serious problems for his views?
(2) What is pragmatics? Explain the difference between semantic pragmatics and pragmatic pragmatics. Give examples of each. Explain Grice's theory of conversational and conventional implicature and how it relates to pragmatics. What is the most serious problem for Grice's theory?
(3) What is truth-conditional semantics? Explain Davidson's theory of meaning. What are the most serious problems it faces. Explain what intensional semantics is and how it addresses some of the problems of Davidson's theory.
Due date: Dec 14.
Suggested length: 7--10 pages
Submit in response to turnitin email.
I will be out of town but available by email. Don't hesitate to write me with any questions or drafts you want me to read.