Research Group
in Analytic Philosophy

Duration: 2006 - 2009

Code: HUM2006-09923 (MEC)

Principal Investigator

Josep Macià (josep.macia@ub.edu)

All researchers

José A. Díez Calzada

Ignacio Vicario

Óscar Cabaco

José Chaves

Jordi Fernández

Manolo Martínez

Chiara Panizza

Sònia Roca

Miguel Ángel Sebastián

Summary

In our previous research project (“Truth in Special Contexts, BFF2003-08335-C03-03, years: 2003-2006), we argued for the view that there is nothing really special regarding the application of the notion of truth to certain kinds of discourse which are allegedly “special”. One of the results of our research was that even if there were some important differences between the different kinds of discourse that we studied, there is one common characteristic among them: there are pragmatic factors that play an important role, even though they are often overlooked. This new project aims to provide an account of the semantics of the following kinds of special contexts:

(a) The so called “expressive meaning”

(b) The evaluative discourse

(c) The modal epistemic discourse

(d) Negative existential sentences

(e) “Lack of existence” contexts in scientific discourse

To carry out our aim it will be necessary to identify and characterize certain pragmatic elements that play a role in these different kind of discourse: certain presuppositions (a, b and c), the aims that speakers seek to obtain with their use of singular terms (d), the shared believes of the participants in a conversation (the context in Stalnaker’s terms). It is necessary to provide an adequate analysis of the pragmatic features that play a role in the special discourses that we will study in order to be able to provide an appropriate semantic account of the expressions involved. Some of the semantic proposals put forward by some authors face some important difficulties that, we contend, arise form trying to account at a semantic level for some phenomena that depend on pragmatic features. Any successful account will require identifying these pragmatic features and describing their interaction with the semantic properties of the expressions involved.