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1、DONALDDAVIDSONTRUTHANDMEANING*Itisconcededbymostphilosophersoflanguage,andrecentlyevenbysomelinguists,thatasatisfactorytheoryofmeaningmustgiveanaccountofhowthemeaningsofsentencesdependuponthemeaningsofwords.Unlesssuchanaccountcouldbesuppliedforaparticularlanguage,itisargued,therew
2、ouldbenoexplainingthefactthatwecanlearnthelan-guage:noexplainingthefactthat,onmasteringafinitevocabularyandafinitelystatedsetofrules,wearepreparedtoproduceandtounderstandanyofapotentialinfinitudeofsentences.Idonotdisputethesevagueclaims,inwhichIsensemorethanakerneloftruth,xInstead
3、Iwanttoaskwhatitisforatheorytogiveanaccountofthekindadumbrated.Oneproposalistobeginbyassigningsomeentityasmeaningtoeachword(orothersignificantsyntacticalfeature)ofthesentence;thuswemightassignTheaetetusto'Theaetetus'andthepropertyofflyingto'flies'inthesentence'Theaetetusflies'.The
4、problemthenariseshowthemeaningofthesentenceisgeneratedfromthesemeanings.Viewingconcatenationasasignificantpieceofsyntax,wemayassigntoittherelationofparticipatinginorinstantiating;however,itisobviousthatwehaveherethestartofaninfiniteregress.Fregesoughttoavoidtheregressbysayingthatt
5、heentitiescorrespondingtopredicates(forexam-ple)are'unsaturated'or'incomplete'incontrasttotheentitiesthatcor-respondtonames,butthisdoctrineseemstolabeladifficultyratherthansolveit.Thepointwillemergeifwethinkforamomentofcomplexsingularterms,towhichFrege'stheoryappliesalongwithsente
6、nces.Considertheexpression'thefatherofAnnette';howdoesthemeaningofthewholedependonthemeaningoftheparts?Theanswerwouldseemtobethatthemeaningof'thefatherof'issuchthatwhenthisexpressionispre-fixedtoasingulartermtheresultreferstothefatherofthepersontowhomthesingulartermrefers.Whatpart
7、isplayed,inthisaccount,bytheunsaturatedorincompleteentityforwhich'thefatherof'stands?Allwecanthinktosayisthatthisentity'yields'or'gives'thefatherofx304Synthese17(1967)304-323.©D.ReidelPublishingCo.,Dordrecht-HollandTRUTHANDMEANINGasvaluewhentheargumentisx,orperhapsthatthisentityma
8、pspeopleontotheirfathers.Itmaynot
