Philosophes du langage et autonymie : une déjà longue histoire
Year: 2005
Type: article
Abstract: ABSTRACT: This paper reviews the wealth of theories put forward by philosophers of language over the last 120 years to account for autonymy (= the mention of linguistic expressions), and relates these theories to the major developments undergone by the discipline. The philosophers-cum-logicians from the turn of the XIXth to the XXth century (notably, Frege, Tarski and Carnap) hoped to build formal languages for science that would not exhibit the flaws of natural languages. But their logicist project proved unfeasible and interest shifted from formal systems to language and ordinary speech. The largely prescriptive judgements of philosophers of language concurrently gave way to description and analysis of linguistic phenomena, with special focus on meaning. Theories of autonymy bear witness to these transformations: from proposals tailored to the characteristics of formal languages (autonyms as names or definite descriptions), they have evolved into accounts that allow for the diversity of autonymy-related phenomena. These theories provide explanations •some better than others •for the numerous instances of •simultaneous use and mention” of an expression (cf. Your •sweetheart” has arrived). Such hybrid utterances are important because they affect our ways of looking at some central issues in the philosophy of language, notably that of the semantics/ pragmatics interface.
Source: Histoire Épistémologie Langage
Author: Philippe de Brabanter
Institution: Institut Jean Nicod
Language: English
Subfield: Language and Linguistics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2008845123