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1、JournalofPragmatics34(2002)349–359www.elsevier.com/locate/pragmaIssemanticsstillpossible?JonathanBergDepartmentofPhilosophy,UniversityofHaifa,Haifa31-905IsraelAbstractThestandardviewofsemantics—thateverydisambiguatedsentencehasadeterminatesemanticcontent,relativetoanassignmentofcontent
2、stoitsindexicalexpressions,andnotnecessarilyidenticaltowhatmaybeconveyed(pragmatically)byitsutterance—isdefendedagainststandardobjectionsandisalsoarguedforonindependentgrounds,whichsuggestthatresistancetotheviewcomesfromafailuretodistinguishbetween‘‘strictsemantics’’and‘‘loosesemantics
3、’’.#2002ElsevierScienceB.V.Allrightsreserved.Keywords:Semantics;Pragmatics;Context;Meaning;‘Whatissaid’;Literal;Nonliteral1.Thequestion‘‘Inthelastdecadeenormousprogressseemstohavebeenmadeinthesyntactictheoryofnaturallanguages...Comparableprogressseemsnottohavebeenmadeinthesemantictheor
4、yofnaturallanguages,andperhapsitistimetoaskwhythisshouldbethecase.Whyisthetheoryofmeaningsohard?’’(Putnam,1970:139).WhenHilaryPutnamposedthisquestion,over30yearsago,hewasconcernedinparticularwiththesemanticsofnaturalkindterms—whichheshowedtobenotnearlyassimpleaspreviouslysupposed.Never
5、theless,heeventuallyansweredthequestionwithguardedoptimism:‘‘Why,then,issemanticssohard?Intermsoftheforegoing,Iwanttosuggestthatsemanticsisatypicalsocialscience.Thesloppiness,thelackofprecisetheoriesandlaws,thelackofmathematicalrigor,areallcharacteristicofthesocialsciencestoday.Agenera
6、landprecisetheory...isstillalongwayoff.ButthefactthatUtopiaisalongwayoffdoesnotmeanthatdailylifeshouldcometoascreechinghalt.Thereisplentyforustoinvestigate,inoursloppyandimpressionisticfashion,andthereareplentyofrealresultstobeobtained.ThefirststepistofreeourselvesfromE-mailaddress:jonath
7、an@research.haifa.ac.il0378-2166/02/$-seefrontmatter#2002ElsevierScienceB.V.Allrightsreserved.PII:S0378-2166(01)00044-3350J.Berg/JournalofPragmatics34(2002)349–359theoversimplificationsfoisteduponusbythetradition,andtoseewheretherealproblemslie.Ihopethispaperhasbeenacontributiontothat
