The notions of what is said and what is meant play an important role in everyday communication. We refer to what somebody has said and evaluate whether it is interesting or boring, precise or imprecise, true or false. And we distinguish from it what somebody has meant either on top of what she said or instead of it and here again evaluate it along different dimensions.
The notions of what is said and what is meant also play an important theoretical role in many disciplines of philosophical interest. There is not only the long tradition in philosophy of language and linguistics to investigate these notions in an effort to come up with plausible theories of meaning and communication. There is also a rather new trend in, for instance, aesthetics, epistemology, ethics and metaphysics to use them to state, defend or bring down certain popular (or not so popular) views, like objectivism or relativism.
The prominence in everyday life and the increasing significance in various fields of philosophy has led to a revival of interest in the two notions themselves. Theorists from all kinds of areas of philosophy and linguistics have made them the subject of independent studies. The conference What is Said - What is Meant brings these theorists together to create an opportunity to discuss the notions of what is said and what is meant across the boundaries of various areas of specialization.
The conference will have two parts. The first part will concern the notion of what is said, the second the notion of what is meant. Talks in the first part will address questions such as the following:
Talks in the second part will address questions such as the following:
The notions of what is said and what is meant also play an important theoretical role in many disciplines of philosophical interest. There is not only the long tradition in philosophy of language and linguistics to investigate these notions in an effort to come up with plausible theories of meaning and communication. There is also a rather new trend in, for instance, aesthetics, epistemology, ethics and metaphysics to use them to state, defend or bring down certain popular (or not so popular) views, like objectivism or relativism.
The prominence in everyday life and the increasing significance in various fields of philosophy has led to a revival of interest in the two notions themselves. Theorists from all kinds of areas of philosophy and linguistics have made them the subject of independent studies. The conference What is Said - What is Meant brings these theorists together to create an opportunity to discuss the notions of what is said and what is meant across the boundaries of various areas of specialization.
The conference will have two parts. The first part will concern the notion of what is said, the second the notion of what is meant. Talks in the first part will address questions such as the following:
- Does what is said coincide with the semantic content of the sentence uttered (or does it involve pragmatic effects)?
- Are ordinary speakers' intuitions as to (the truth-value of) what a given speaker says a reliable guide to the semantic content of the sentence uttered?
- Does what is said always have an absolute truth-value (or a truth-value that is relative at most to a possible world)?
- Is what is said by a given speaker in a given context a (single) proposition? Could it be non-propositional (e.g. a propositional fragment or a set of propositions)?
- Is what is said by a given speaker in a given context relative to the context from which the utterance is assessed?
- Is what is said always part of what is meant?
Talks in the second part will address questions such as the following:
- In what ways can what a given speaker means go beyond what the speaker says? In particular, is everything that is meant but not said an implicature or do we also have to acknowledge presuppositions, implicitures, explicitures, etc.?
- What are workable tests for conversational implicatures? For example, are cancelability or calculability reliable tests for the presence of an implicature?
- What are workable presupposition tests? In particular, is the "hey, wait a minute" and the "and what is more" test reliable? Are projection tests reliable?
- What kinds of implicatures are there? Do conventional (as opposed to conversational) implicatures exist?
- What kinds of presuppositions are there? Do we have to distinguish between semantic and pragmatic presuppositions or between sentence and speaker presuppositions?
- Are implicatures and presuppositions always part of what is meant?
- Can implicatures, presuppositions, etc. lead ordinary speakers astray in judging (the truth-value of) what is said by a given speaker? To what extent?
Organizers
Alexander Dinges (Universität Hamburg)
Emanuel Viebahn (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)
Julia Zakkou (Universität Hamburg)
Alexander Dinges (Universität Hamburg)
Emanuel Viebahn (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)
Julia Zakkou (Universität Hamburg)