Minimal Semantics

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1、MinimalSemanticsMinimalSemanticsaskswhatatheoryofliterallinguisticmeaningisfor—ifyouweretobegivenaworkingtheoryofmeaningforalan-guagerightnow,whatwouldyoubeabletodowithit?EmmaBorgsetsouttodefendaformalapproachtosemantictheorizingfromapowerfulcontemporaryopponent—ad

2、vocatesofwhatshecall‘dualpragmatics’.Accordingtodualpragmatists,richpragmaticprocessesplaytwodistinctrolesinlinguisticcomprehension:aswellasoperatinginapost-semanticcapacitytodeterminetheimplicaturesofanutter-ance,theyalsooperatepriortothedeterminationoftruth-condi

3、tionalcontentforasentence.Thatistosay,theyhaveanintegralroletoplaywithinwhatisusuallythoughtofasthesemanticrealm.Borgbelievesdualpragmaticaccountsconstitutethestrongestchal-lengetostandardformalapproachestosemanticssincetheychallengetheformaltheoristtoshownotmerely

4、thatthereissomeroleforfor-malprocessesonroutetodeterminationofsemanticcontent,butthatsuchprocessesarealonesufficientfordeterminingcontent.MinimalSemanticsprovidesadetailedexaminationofthisdualpragmaticposi-tion,introducingreaderswhoareunfamiliarwiththetopictokeyidea

5、slikerelevancetheoryandcontextualism,andlookingindetailatwheretheseaccountsdivergefromtheformalapproach.Borg’sdefenceofformalsemanticshastwomainparts:first,shearguesthattheformalapproachismostnaturallycompatiblewithanimportantandwell-groundedpsychologicaltheory,name

6、lytheFodorianmodularpictureofthemind.Thenshearguesthatthemainargumentsadducedbydualpragmatistsagainstformalsemantics—concerningapparentcontextualintrusionsintosemanticcontent—caninfactbecounteredbyaformaltheory.Thedefenceholds,however,onlyifwearesensitivetotheprope

7、rconditionsofsuccessforasemantictheory.Specifically,weshouldrejectarangeofonerousconstraintsonsemantictheorizing(e.g.,thatitresolveepistemicormetaphysicalquestions,orthatitexplainourcommunicativeskills).SoBorg’sanswertothequestionofwhatasemantictheoryisforhasapartic

8、ular,minimalslant.ThispageintentionallyleftblankMinimalSemanticsEMMABORG11GreatClarendonStreet,OxfordoxdpOxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentofth