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OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 24/2/2016, SPi
CONTEMPORARY INTRODUCTIONS TO
PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE
Context and
Communication
1
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 24/2/2016, SPi
3
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP,
United Kingdom
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.
It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship,
and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of
Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries
© Herman Cappelen and Josh Dever 2016
The moral rights of the authors have been asserted
First Edition published in 2016
Impression: 1
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the
prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted
by law, by licence or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics
rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the
above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the
address above
You must not circulate this work in any other form
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer
Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press
198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Data available
Library of Congress Control Number: 2015956473
ISBN 978–0–19–876991–0 (hbk)
978–0–19–873306–5 (pbk)
Printed in Great Britain by
Clays Ltd, St Ives plc
Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and
for information only. Oxford disclaims any responsibility for the materials
contained in any third party website referenced in this work.
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 24/2/2016, SPi
Contents
Introduction 1
Bibliography 191
Index 197
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 24/2/2016, SPi
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 24/2/2016, SPi
Detailed Contents
Acknowledgment xi
Introduction 1
DETAILED CONTENTS ix
Bibliography 191
Index 197
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 24/2/2016, SPi
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 24/2/2016, SPi
Acknowledgment
Introduction
This book is about the various ways in which what we say (and assert,
ask, and think) depends on the context of speech and thought. The
period since 1970 has produced a vast literature on this topic, both by
philosophers and linguists. It is arguably the area of philosophy (and
linguistics) where most progress has been made over the last forty
years. The goal of this book is to provide students with an introduc-
tion to some of the central data, questions, concepts, and theories of
context sensitivity.
The ‘some’ part of the previous sentence is important. This book is not
meant to be exhaustive. The amount of work done by philosophers and
linguists on this topic is immense. To cover it all, we would have had to
write an extremely long and unwieldy book. So we don’t aspire to
comprehensiveness. Instead, we have picked some topics, views, and
arguments that we think are important, interesting, and instructive.
Our hope is that a reader who has understood and engaged with this
selection of material will be in a good position to start engaging with
much of the work we don’t cover in this book.
The book is written to be accessible to someone with no prior know-
ledge of the material or, indeed, any prior knowledge of philosophy. It
can be used as part of a philosophy of language course or as part of a
general introduction to philosophy.
We initially set out to write a single book that could serve as an
introduction to philosophy of language. We gave up. We now think
that goal is too ambitious for any one book. There is simply too much
interesting work done within this field over the last 100 years to cover it
all (or even most of it) in a single book. A book that tried to do that
would inevitably be so superficial that it would fail to convey to the
readers how rich, complex, and important these topics are. To do justice
to the field we have set out to write a series of introductions to
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 22/2/2016, SPi
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
PART I
Context Sensitivity:
Variability vs. Stability
1
Contextual Variability
• What is causation?
• What is knowledge?
• What is truth?
• What is rationality?
• What is happiness?
• What is logical consequence?
• What is it for something to be possible?
• What is it for something to have a color? (e.g. to be red)
• What is the right thing to do?
• What is friendship?
Arguably, the answer to all these questions (and practically every other
question of that general form) is, in part: “Well, that depends on the
context”. If that is right, then understanding context sensitivity is one of
the most important challenges facing someone trying to gain philosophical
understanding, or, indeed, any understanding of anything.
To see why it is true, we need to understand what ‘context sensitivity’
means. Any attempt to answer that question will start with the simplest
cases—the cases we understand best. Consider utterances of ‘I am happy’
and ‘John left yesterday’.
CONTEXTUAL VARIABILITY
two utterances of ‘now’ refer to different times. (ii) Variability in what was
said: If the first one is uttered at noon, then ‘now’ refers to noon and the
speaker says that the meeting starts at noon. If the second is uttered at 1pm,
then ‘now’ refers to 1pm, and the utterance will say that the meeting starts
at 1pm. (iii) Variability in truth value: If the meeting starts at noon, what is
said in the first speech is true and what is said in the second is false.
Consider two utterances of ‘You are wearing a red hat’. An utterance
of ‘you’ refers to the speaker’s audience. If we vary the audience, we get
varied referents. If in the first context the audience is Jill, then the speaker
is saying that Jill is wearing a red hat. If in the second context the
audience is Naomi, the speaker is saying that Naomi is wearing a red
hat. If Jill, but not Naomi, is wearing a red hat, then the first utterance is
true and the second utterance is false.
Other words that exhibit these kinds of variability (combined with stabil-
ity in form) include ‘today’, ‘yesterday’, ‘tomorrow’, etc., ‘here’, ‘there’, ‘that’,
‘we’, ‘she’, ‘he’, ‘us’, and ‘it’. We will call this rough category the Basic Set.
.. Contexts
So far we’ve talked about three kinds of variability (in reference, what is
said, and truth value) and one kind of stability (in the form of the
sentence). What’s the source of the variability? The answer is twofold.
In part it is determined by the meaning of the words: they are the kinds
of words whose meaning in the language (i.e. in English) requires this
variability. In part, the variability is a result of some aspect of the speech
situation. Which aspect of the speech situation that matters varies
between the examples above: for ‘I’ it is the identity of the speaker that
matters; for ‘you’, the audience; for ‘now’, the time of speech; for ‘that’,
the object demonstrated; and so on. The meaning of a context-sensitive
word will, in some sense, tell you what the relevant feature of the speech
situation is. To be able to talk more generally about this, we will, in these
initial chapters, use the term ‘context’ to refer collectively to those
features of the speech situation that make reference vary (e.g. speaker,
audience, demonstrated object, time, place etc.). So by context we mean
all those things, whatever they may be, that trigger such variability in
context-sensitive expressions. In Chapter 8, we will consider more
detailed theories about what sorts of things contexts are. For now, we
will operate with this pre-theoretic notion.
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 24/2/2016, SPi
CONTEXTUAL VARIABILITY
Smith was found guilty of drug trafficking. He had traded his gun for
illegal drugs. Keep in mind that he didn’t use the gun as a weapon. It was
in a plastic bag and was handed over in exchange for the drugs. So here is
an important question: what does ‘uses a firearm’ mean in the context of
that law? The court found that Smith had used a firearm in the course of
committing the crime and so was subject to the more stringent
sentencing—he had to serve five extra years.
Justice Scalia, in his dissent, can be seen grappling with the very issues
this book is about. Here is, in part, Scalia’s objection:
To use an instrumentality ordinarily means to use it for its intended purpose.
When someone asks “Do you use a cane?” he is not inquiring whether you have
your grandfather’s silver-handled walking stick on display in the hall; he wants to
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 24/2/2016, SPi
know whether you walk with a cane. Similarly, to speak of “using a firearm” is to
speak of using it for its distinctive purpose, i.e., as a weapon. To be sure, “one can
use a firearm in a number of ways,” ante, at 7, including as an article of exchange,
just as one can “use” a cane as a hall decoration . . . (Smith vs The United States,
508 U.S. at 242 (Scalia, J., dissenting))
Scalia observes that ‘Smith used a firearm’ can be used to mean many
different things—used it to scratch his head, as a wall decoration, as a
hammer, as a doorstop, or as an article of exchange. However, Scalia
argues, this fact does not justify adding five years to Smith’s sentence
because, according to Scalia:
The Court does not appear to grasp the distinction between how a word can
be used and how it ordinarily is used. It would, indeed, be “both reasonable
and normal to say that petitioner ‘used’ his MAC-10 in his drug trafficking
offense by trading it for cocaine.” Ibid. It would also be reasonable and
normal to say that he “used” it to scratch his head. When one wishes to
describe the action of employing the instrument of a firearm for such
unusual purposes, “use” is assuredly a verb one could select. But that
says nothing about whether the ordinary meaning of the phrase “uses a
firearm” embraces such extraordinary employments. It is unquestionably
not reasonable and normal, I think, to say simply “do not use firearms”
when one means to prohibit selling or scratching with them. (Emphasis
added.)(Smith vs The United States, 508 U.S. at 242 (Scalia, J., dissenting))
CONTEXTUAL VARIABILITY
in a course on sociology. You might think it true in the first context (as a
generalization over how the law ought to treat citizens), but false in the
second (as a generalization over how as a matter of fact different groups
are treated).
What these contrasting cases illustrate is that the threshold for when a
relationship counts as a loving relationship can go up and down. In some
contexts, it is easier for some state or relationship to count as love. In
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 24/2/2016, SPi
Neither of these requires re-learning ‘love’ in the way that encountering a new
meaning for ‘bank’ does.
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 24/2/2016, SPi
CONTEXTUAL VARIABILITY
In sum, vagueness isn’t the same as context sensitivity, but vagueness implies
it. There is a lot of vagueness, and so there is a lot of context sensitivity.
Title: Lauluja
Language: Finnish
Kirj.
Antti Rytkönen
SISÄLLYS:
Syvänteet.
Kuohuissa.
Meri ja taivas.
Takatalvessa.
Kesää odottaissa.
Hän..
Sinä ja minä.
Lehdossa.
Sorsa se Saimaan aalloissa sousi.
Valkojoutseneni.
Valkamani.
Lauluni.
Se lempi.
Eloni.
Levoton.
Kevättuulessa.
Kaipuuni.
Kuusen alla.
Talvilehto.
Valtameri.
Laulu talvelle.
Oli metsä vihreä.
Merelle lähtijä.
Luojalle.
Rauhassa.
Rannan kuusi.
Myrsky-yönä.
Merenneitojen laulu.
Meriltä palatessa.
Kevät-iltana.
Tähtöselleni.
Samponi.
Syystunnelma.
Keväinen koski.
Muistojen mailta.
Tyhjä sija.
Sairas soittaja.
Niin syvästi särki se äidin mieltä.
Turhaan.
Manan morsian.
Mari pikkunen piika.
Paimeritytön kevätlaulu.
Tuliluulialei.
Ikävissä.
Paimenpoika ja paimentyttö.
Paimenpojan laulu.
Koti lahteen soutaessa.
Mistä kyynel.
Leppäkerttu ja tuomenterttu.
Musta lintu, merikotka..
Järven jäällä.
Köyhän koti.
Heilini.
Kevätkylmissä.
Jäiden lähtö.
Kalevaisten karkelo.
Kevätmietteissä.
Ainon kaiho.
Kerran lemmin.
12-13.IV.1597.
Korven keskellä.
Kylänkarkelo.
Tarina Pekasta ja vallesmannista.
Pimeän pesä.
Voiton saatte.
Maamiehen kevätlaulu.
Tahdon ikitulta.
Syvänteet.
Syvänteihin katseleisin, mi lie siellä elo kumma?
Salaisuudetpa ne syvät kätkee multa meri tumma.
Kuohuissa.
Meri ja taivas.
Takatalvessa.
Kesää odottaissa.
Sinä ja minä.
Lehdossa.
Valkojoutseneni.
Mun valkojoutseneni,
sä miksi lensit pois?
Valkamani.
Kun meri ärjyy, aaltoo ja tummana vaahtoaa, kun pilvinen
on taivas ja rinta ei rauhaa saa,
Lauluni.
Se lempi.
Eloni.
Haaksi aaltojen ajama, vene vetten vierittämä on mun
vaivaisen vaellus.
Levoton.
Kevättuulessa.
Kuusen alla.
Talvilehto.
Valtameri.
Rintani on valtameri,
miksi rauhaa etsit sieltä,
miksi tyyntä, sointuisuutta
ulapan ja aallon tieltä?
Laulu talvelle.
Ja kuitenkin, ja kuitenkin
ne tuli ne keväiset kylmätkin.
Merelle lähtijä.
Rauhassa.
Rannan kuusi.
Myrsky-yönä.
***
Merenneitojen laulu.
Kevät-iltana.