Devitt, Michael
(2012)
Whither Experimental Semantics?
THEORIA. An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science, 27 (1).
pp. 5-36.
ISSN 2171-679X
Abstract
The main goal of the paper is to propose a methodology for the theory of reference in which experiments feature prominently. These experiments should primarily test linguistic usage rather than the folk’s referential intuitions. The proposed methodology urges the use of: (A) philosophers’ referential intuitions, both informally and, occasionally, scientifically gathered; (B) the corpus, both informally and scientifically gathered; (C) elicited production; and, occasionally, (D) folk’s referential intuitions. The most novel part of this is (C) and that is where most of the experimental work should be. The secondary goal of the paper is to defend my earlier paper “Experimental Semantics” from the criticisms of Machery, Mallon, Nichols, and Stich in “If Folk Intuitions Vary, Then What?” They charge that I have seriously misunderstood their goal in “Semantics, Cross-Cultural Style” and that many of my arguments are “largely irrelevant”. I argue that
these charges are baseless.
| Item Type: |
Published Article or Volume
|
| Creators: |
|
| Additional Information: |
ISSN: 0495-4548 (print) |
| Keywords: |
methodology; experiments; reference; linguistic intuitions; linguistic usage; corpus; Kripke; Machery; Mallon;
Nichols; Stich |
| Depositing User: |
Users 15304 not found. |
| Date Deposited: |
04 Feb 2014 23:15 |
| Last Modified: |
04 Feb 2014 23:15 |
| Item ID: |
10257 |
| Journal or Publication Title: |
THEORIA. An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science |
| Publisher: |
Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea / Universidad del País Vasco |
| Official URL: |
http://www.ehu.es/ojs/index.php/THEORIA/article/vi... |
| DOI or Unique Handle: |
10.1387/theoria.3866 |
| Date: |
January 2012 |
| Page Range: |
pp. 5-36 |
| Volume: |
27 |
| Number: |
1 |
| ISSN: |
2171-679X |
| URI: |
https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/10257 |
Monthly Views for the past 3 years
Monthly Downloads for the past 3 years
Plum Analytics
Altmetric.com
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |
![[img]](https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/style/images/fileicons/application_pdf.png)
![[feed]](http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/style/images/feed-icon-32x32.png){kind=icon}