|
Adèle |
MERCIER |
|
|
PhD (Philosophy)
UCLA 1992, MA (Philosophy) UCLA 1983. C.Phil (Linguistics)
UCLA 1990, MA (Linguistics) UCLA 1988. Professor of
Philosophy (cross-appointed to Linguistics), Queen=s University in Kingston, Canada since 1992. Visiting Professor, University of Barcelona, LOGOS: Logic, Language and Cognition Research
Group, 2002-03. Visiting Professor/Scholar (seasonal) at
UCLA: Dept of Linguistics 1995-99, Dept of
Philosophy 1992-97. Research Affiliate
at (the former) CREA:
Centre de Recherche en Epistémologie Appliquée, Paris,
1991-93. Post-Doc at Stanford University, CSLI: Center for Study of Language and Information, 1992-93. |
|
Photo Shaun Maxwell, Barcelona 2002 |
|
|
INTERESTS My work is informed by
theoretical linguistics, specifically by the approach to the study of
language developed by Chomsky. I engage influential views in philosophy of
language and mind and argue that some fail to satisfy criteria of adequacy
required of sustainable conceptions of the relation between speakers and
their language. Though critical of much current philosophical externalism
(especially that concerning the relationship between the content of our minds
and our connection to a linguistic community), I also engage influential
views in linguistics and argue that some fail to appreciate important lessons
drawn from externalist considerations of the last half century. My work is
informed also by logic and by formal semantics (broadly speaking, Montague
Grammar), as well as by natural language semantics. In applying philosophy of
language to current social and political issues, this work tends to have a deontic component which I greatly value. I am currently
at work on a book about what a language is (if there is such a thing) and
what makes linguistic sense (if anything) in the notion of a linguistic
community. SELECTED WRITINGS 1998: On Communication-Based De Re
Thought, Commitments De Dicto, and
Word-Individuation. Philosophy and Linguistics (ed. R. Stainton),
Westview Press (37 ms. pages). 1996: A Perverse Case of the
Contingent A Priori: On the Logic of Emasculating Language (A Reply to
Dawkins and Dummett). Philosophical Topics
(special ed. S. Haslanger), Arkansas University
Press (52 ms. pages). 1994: Consumerism and Language
Acquisition. Linguistics and Philosophy, Vol.17, No 5 (29 ms pages) 1993: Normativism
and the Mental: A Problem of Language Individuation. Philosophical Studies, Vol.72, No 1 (25 ms pages) CURRICULUM VITAE ....rtf CONTACT ME:
merciera@post.queensu.ca ONLINE
PAPERS 2003: Conventions,
Convergence and the Metaphysics of Words: It's Shirt-Buttoning All the Way
Down, Ruth! (23 ms. pages). Keywords: convention, convergence,
word-individuation, Millikan 2003: Analyticity, Intentionality and
Necessity: The Case about Gay Marriage (39 ms. pages) Emerged from my role as expert witness
for the petitioners in Egale v. Canada
(2001) and in Halpern v. Canada
(2001). Analyzes and rejects a suggestion that marriage analytically involves
a male and a female and hence of necessity excludes gays and lesbians. In so
doing, draws attention to important differences between natural kind terms
and social kind terms, and to the differing role of experts in each case. Keywords: analyticity, intentionality,
necessity, same-sex marriage, Egale v. Canada (AG),
Halpern v. Canada(AG), natural
kinds, social kinds, experts 2003: What is a Word? (26 ms.
pages) Keywords: word, word-individuation,
word-type, Kaplan, common currency, semantic shift 2001: Expert
witness for petitioners in Halpern v. Canada(A.G.) on the meaning of the
word >marriage=: Filed in the Ontario Superior Court of
Justice (Court files 684/00, 30/2001), November (31 pages). Replies to an affidavit by Rob Stainton in which he argues that because of the pre-legal
Judeo-Christian history of marriage, the meaning of >marriage= for Canadians analytically
excludes reference to same-sex unions, as >marriage= Ajust is@ heterosexual, hence for gays
to petition the Courts for the right to marry is an unintelligible as for Atwo brothers to petition the
Courts for the right to be called sisters@. Also replies to Stainton=s foisting a disreputable
Whorfian interpretation upon Erhlich=s suggestion that denying
gays access to a fundamental institution such as marriage is harmful to them
in a context of homophobia. Keywords: same-sex marriage, reference, Egale v. Canada(AG), Halpern v.
Canada(AG), Stainton, Erhlich 2002: L'homme
et la factrice: Sur la logique du genre. Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review, VOL. XLI, No. 3 (45 ms.
pages). Applies the logical lessons of A
Perverse Case of the Contingent A Priori: On the Logic of Emasculating
Language (A Reply to Dawkins and Dummett)
(1996) to the study of grammatical and semantic gender in French, where the
relevant problems and recommended solutions are (surprisingly) different. Keywords: homme,
genre syntaxique, genre semantique, masculin, feminin 1999:
Dogmatic Scepticism, Cynicism, and the
There-Is-No-Such-Thing-As-Truth Syndrome. SiteStreet, an on-line journal of art,
criticism and ideas. (6 ms. pages) Keywords: truth, post-modernism, scepticism, cynicism, moral absolutism, relativism 1998: On
Communication-Based De Re Thought, Commitments De Dicto,
and Word-Individuation. Philosophy and Linguistics (ed. R. Stainton),
Westview Press (37 ms. pages). Provides an account of how necessary
subjective syntactic investments on the part of speakers affect the semantic
contents of their words and the possibilities for their thought-contents. Keywords: de re, communication, de dicto, word-individuation, thought, subjectivism 1996:
A Perverse Case of the
Contingent A Priori: On the Logic of Emasculating Language (A Reply
to Dawkins and Dummett).
Philosophical Topics (special ed. S. Haslanger),
Arkansas University Press (52 ms. pages). Scrutinizes in logical and semantic
detail what exactly is wrong with masculine language serving double duty as
sex-neutral language (>man= standing for humans, >he= standing for anyone, and so
on). Keywords: contingent a priori, masculine,
sex-neutral, man, he, gender, Dawkins, Dummett 1994:
Consumerism and Language Acquisition.
Linguistics
and Philosophy,
Vol.17, No 5 (29
ms. pages). Argues that one sort of view currently
dominant in philosophy of mind (e.g. Kaplan=s Consumerism) makes it hard
to explain how speakers learn to speak.
Keywords: consumerism, language,
acquisition, Kaplan, subjectivism 1993: Normativism
and the Mental: A Problem of Language Individuation. Philosophical Studies, Vol.72, No 1 (25 ms. pages). Argues that one sort of view currently
dominant in philosophy of mind (e.g. Burge=s externalism) makes it hard
to account for the ineluctible fact of language
change over time. Keywords: normativism,
externalism, mental, language, individuation, Burge, semantic shift 1988: On Rule Ordering Paradoxes in
Morphology: A Semantic Alternative to the Level Ordering Hypothesis. MA thesis (Ling.), UCLA University
Archives (70 pages). Keywords: bracketing paradoxes,
rule-ordering, Pezetsky, semantics, morphology |
|
