Book contents
- The Cambridge Handbook of the Philosophy of Language
- Cambridge Handbooks in Language and Linguistics
- The Cambridge Handbook of the Philosophy of Language
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- 1 Philosophy of Language: Definitions, Disciplines, and Approaches
- Part I The Past, Present, and Future of Philosophy of Language
- Part II Some Foundational Issues
- Part III From Truth to Vagueness
- Part IV Issues in Semantics and Pragmatics
- 17 Entailment, Presupposition, Implicature
- 18 Speech Acts, Actions, and Events
- 19 Propositions, Predication, and Assertion
- 20 Events in Semantics
- 21 Semantics and Generative Grammar
- 22 Metasemantics: A Normative Perspective (and the Case of Mood)
- 23 The Normativity of Meaning and Content
- 24 The Semantics and Pragmatics of Value Judgments
- 25 Slurs: Semantic and Pragmatic Theories of Meaning
- Part V Philosophical Implications and Linguistic Theories
- Part VI Some Extensions
- References
- Index
20 - Events in Semantics
from Part IV - Issues in Semantics and Pragmatics
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 November 2021
- The Cambridge Handbook of the Philosophy of Language
- Cambridge Handbooks in Language and Linguistics
- The Cambridge Handbook of the Philosophy of Language
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- 1 Philosophy of Language: Definitions, Disciplines, and Approaches
- Part I The Past, Present, and Future of Philosophy of Language
- Part II Some Foundational Issues
- Part III From Truth to Vagueness
- Part IV Issues in Semantics and Pragmatics
- 17 Entailment, Presupposition, Implicature
- 18 Speech Acts, Actions, and Events
- 19 Propositions, Predication, and Assertion
- 20 Events in Semantics
- 21 Semantics and Generative Grammar
- 22 Metasemantics: A Normative Perspective (and the Case of Mood)
- 23 The Normativity of Meaning and Content
- 24 The Semantics and Pragmatics of Value Judgments
- 25 Slurs: Semantic and Pragmatic Theories of Meaning
- Part V Philosophical Implications and Linguistic Theories
- Part VI Some Extensions
- References
- Index
Summary
Event Semantics (ES) says that clauses in natural languages are descriptions of events. Why believe this? The answer cannot be that we use clauses to talk about events, or that events are important in ontology or psychology. Other sorts of things have the same properties, but no special role in semantics. The answer must be that this view helps to explain the semantics of natural languages. But then, what is it to explain the semantics of natural languages? Here there are many approaches, differing on, among other issues, whether natural languages are social and objective or individual and mental; whether the semantics delivers truth-values at contexts or just constraints on truth-evaluable thoughts; which inferences it should explain as formally provable, if any; and which if any grammatical patterns it should explain directly. The argument for ES will differ accordingly, as will the consequences, for ontology, psychology, or linguistics, of its endorsement.
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- The Cambridge Handbook of the Philosophy of Language , pp. 366 - 386Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021
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