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May 2018

20180521
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III Krakowskie Wykłady z Filozofii Języka: Francois Recanati (Institut Jean Nicod, Paryż)

Date: 21.05.2018 - 23.05.2018
Place: Instytut Filozofii UJ, ul. Grodzka 52, sala 13
Organiser: Jagiellońskie Centrum Badawcze Prawo - Język - Filozofia oraz Instytut Filozofii UJ
Contact: katarzyna.kijania-placek@uj.edu.pl

21 V 2018 r., 14.30, sala 13 - Speech Acts
22 V 2018 r., 14.30, sala 13 - Direct Reference
23 V 2018 r., 14.30, sala 13 - Contextualism and Compositionality

III Krakowskie Wykłady z Filozofii Języka: Francois Recanati (Institut Jean Nicod, Paryż)

21 V 2018 r., 14.30, sala 13 - Francois Recanati: Speech Acts

Abstract: I will discuss Austin’s ideas, starting from a widely noted ambiguity in his notion of illocutionary act. There are, I will argue, two types of acts which are in fact two aspects of one and unique reality — one aspect that is social or institutional and one that is communicative. After having discussed the relations between the two types of acts, I will introduce a third type of act that is equally rooted in the Austinian theoretical framework: the locutionary act consisting in saying something. I will present a hierarchical conception according to which the concept of social or institutional act (illocutionary act in the strong sense) is the basic notion, and the communicative act (illocutionary act in the weak sense) is defined in relation to the social act. I will argue that, similarly, the locutionary act needs to be defined in relation to the communicative act, which it presupposes.

can be watched here

 

22 V 2018 r., 14.30, sala 13 - Francois Recanati: Direct Reference

Abstract: There are two competing notions of direct reference. According to the first, ‘Millian’ notion, a directly referential expression is like a tag which is directy assigned to a particular object without there being ‘a semantic mechanism to search for and determine the referent’ (Marti). Proper names are directly referential in that sense and they stand in contrast to definite descriptions, whose mode of reference determination is satisfactional. According to another, ‘Kaplanian’ notion of direct reference, what characterises direct reference is the fact that the propositional constituent corresponding to a directly referential expression is an object rather than an individual concept or ‘mode of presentation’. No less than proper names, indexicals are, and definite descriptions can be, directly referential in that weaker sense, despite carrying descriptive content. I will defend the Millian position and argue that the mental file framework enables us to make sense of it even with respect to indexicals or referentially used descriptions.

can be watched here

 

23 V 2018 r., 14.30, sala 13 - Francois Recanati: Contextualism and Compositionality

Abstract: It has often been observed that the meaning of a word may be affected by the other words which occur in the same sentence. How are we to account for this phenomenon of semantic interaction? I will argue that semantic interaction reduces to context-sensitivity and does not raise unsurmountable problems for standard compositional accounts. On the other hand, it would be a mistake to assume too simple a view of context-sensitivity. In accordance with the contextualist position put forward in Literal Meaning, two basic forms of context-sensitivity will be distinguished, both of which are relevant to semantic interaction. The second form — sense modulation — may be thought to threaten compositionality, but, I will argue, it does not.

can be watched here