Some Questions about Language: A Theory of Human Discourse and Its Objects - Softcover

Adler, Mortimer Jerome

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0812691784 ISBN 13: 9780812691788

Verlag: Open Court Publishing Company, 1991

Inhaltsangabe

How do meaningless marks and sounds become the meaningful words of a natural language? To what do words having referential significance refer? What is the meaning of the words that do not have referential significance? Can ordinary language really do what it appears to do, or is this an illusion? Dr. Adler maintains that these fundamental questions are not satisfactorily treated in the two main philosophies of language that have dominated twentieth-century thinking on the subject - the syntactical and 'ordinary language' approaches.

Drawing upon the tradition of Aristotle, Aquinas, Poinsot, and Husserl, Dr. Adler's own discussion exemplifies the third approach, which he describes as "semantic and lexical." In this now -classic work, the fruit of more than 50 years' concern with the philosophy of language, Dr. Adler advances a powerful theory of meaning and applies it to some outstanding philosophical problems. In unpretentious and uncluttered prose, he provides a limpid introduction to a number of knotty philosophical issues and at the same time issues a challenge to some of the most tenacious doctrines of the modern world.

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Reseña del editor

How do meaningless marks and sounds become the meaningful words of a natural language? To what do words having referential significance refer? What is the meaning of the words that do not have referential significance? Can ordinary language really do what it appears to do, or is this an illusion? Dr. Adler maintains that these fundamental questions are not satisfactorily treated in the two main philosophies of language that have dominated twentieth-century thinking on the subject - the syntactical and 'ordinary language' approaches.

Drawing upon the tradition of Aristotle, Aquinas, Poinsot, and Husserl, Dr. Adler's own discussion exemplifies the third approach, which he describes as "semantic and lexical." In this now -classic work, the fruit of more than 50 years' concern with the philosophy of language, Dr. Adler advances a powerful theory of meaning and applies it to some outstanding philosophical problems. In unpretentious and uncluttered prose, he provides a limpid introduction to a number of knotty philosophical issues and at the same time issues a challenge to some of the most tenacious doctrines of the modern world.

Reseña del editor

How do meaningless marks and sounds become the meaningful words of a natural language? What is the meaning of words that do not have referential significance? Can ordinary language really do what it appears to do, or is this an illusion? In this work, Dr Adler argues that these fundamental questions are not satisfactorily handled in the two main philosophies of language that have dominated 20th-century thinking on the subject - the syntactical and "ordinary language" approaches. Drawing on the tradition of Aristotle, Aquinas, Poinsot and Husserl, Adler's own discussion exemplifies the third approach, which he describes as "semantic and lexical". He advances his theory of meaning and applies it to outstanding philosophical problems.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Open Court Publishing Company
• Erscheinungsdatum: 1991
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0812691784
• ISBN 13: 9780812691788
• Einband: Tapa blanda
• Anzahl der Seiten: 204
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar