Is displacement possible without language? Evidence from preverbal infants and chimpanzees

Is displacement possible without language? This question was addressed in a recent work by Liszkowski and colleagues (Liszkowski, Schafer, Carpenter, & Tomasello, 2009). The authors carried out an experiment to demonstrate that 12-month-old prelinguistic infants can communicate about absent entities by using pointing gestures, while chimpanzees cannot. The main hypothesis of their study is that displacement does not depend on language but is, however, exclusively human and instead depends on species-specific social-cognitive human skills. Against this hypothesis, we will argue that a symbolic representation is needed to intentionally communicate absence and that this symbolic representa…

Autonomia del linguistico ed eclettismo metodologico

Se lo nomini, lo rompi. Osservazioni sul silenzio linguistico.

Guttuso scritti a cura di Marco Carapezza

Il volume raccoglie tutti gli scritti d'arte di Renato Guttuso dal 1929 al 1986 Annotati da marco Carapezza. Si tratta di scritti editi ed inediti che documentano l'importante attività critica del celebre pittore italiano che dimostra di essere stato uno dei maggiori intellettuali del Novecento.

Di che cosa parliamo quando parliamo di animali? Considerazioni sul concetto di "Umwelt"

Segni e nomi nel Tractatus logico-Philosophicus

Le ragioni di un antologia: Guttuso e il pensare secondo pittura

How the Context Matters. Literal and Figurative Meaning in the Embodied Language Paradigm

The involvement of the sensorimotor system in language understanding has been widely demonstrated. However, the role of context in these studies has only recently started to be addressed. Though words are bearers of a semantic potential, meaning is the product of a pragmatic process. It needs to be situated in a context to be disambiguated. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that embodied simulation occurring during linguistic processing is contextually modulated to the extent that the same sentence, depending on the context of utterance, leads to the activation of different effector-specific brain motor areas. In order to test this hypothesis, we asked subjects to give a moto…

Performance of Understanding: Pragmatics and Fast and Frugal Heuristics

What determines the meaning of an utterance is a logical matter and as such must be treated independently of the bio-cognitive constraints that operate in our bodies. This thesis, whose great supporter was Frege, implies a clear notion of rationality that seems not to bear comparison with what we know on the limits of our rationality. Various theories (Kahneman and Tversky 1983; Gigerenzer et al., 1999), thematizing the need to consider our rationality beginning from the bio- cognitive constraints that our body imposes on a mass of information, can be of great utility for facing the problem of what type of rationality operates in phenomena of linguistic understanding (Ferreira and Patson 20…

Wittgenstein e l'insensatezza delle proposizioni etiche

Il Futuro Prossimo delle Scienze Cognitive

Le architetture narrative di Fabrizio Clerici

In una prospettiva filosofica, la pittura di Fabrizio Clerici viene letta mettendone in luce le caratterische narrative.

In-Seguire la Regola: Giochi Linguistici e Arti Performative

Abstract In this paper, we will describe some characteristics of the relationship between spectator and artwork from the point of view of the mechanisms of comprehension of an artwork, with a specific focus on performing arts. We will develop our argument along the lines of a comparison between art and language, focusing on analogies and differences between the comprehension of an artwork and linguistic comprehension. We will build on Wittgenstein’s notion of rule and language game, and on models of linguistic interaction developed within the domain of cognitive science and psycholinguistics. Both paradigms rely on a systemic approach to linguistic interaction, with interaction being concei…

La lingua traveste il pensiero. Immagine logica e giochi linguistici in Wittgenstein

IL volume si propone di indagare uno dei principi guida della riflessione Wittgensteiniana: Il pensiero Il tema non viene espresso ma trasformato dal parlare. Il tema viene indagato attraverso la chiarificazione di nozioni centrali: L'immagine, Il gioco linguistico, Il linguaggio privato. Ognuna di queste nozione vine proposta una lettura che tien conto dell'attuale dibattito con particolare riferimento ai cosiddetti autori risolute. Un intermezzo dedicato alla logica mette in dialogo la posizione di Wittgenstein con le attuali teorie sulla complessità computazione.

Perspectives on language Use and Pragmatics

Ceci n'est pas une ontologie

The opening remarks of the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus seem to outline the bases of an atomistic ontological theory. For the resolute interpreters, such 
an ontology should be considered as mere part of the set of nonsensical 
propositions that make up the parody of a semantic theory. However, resolute 
readers share with the traditional views an essentialist reading of the 
ontological section, according to which Wittgenstein's remarks are intended to 
build up a real, though parodistic, atomistic ontology. 
 By contrast, textual evidence supports the idea that the basic notion of 
Wittgenstein’s ontology, i.e. the notion of object, should be considered as an 
intra-linguistic, rather t…

Ritratto dell'artista da cerbiatto

Che rapporto c’è tra il deficit cognitivo e la straordinaria capacità di cesellare i dettagli posseduta da disegnatoricome Stephen Wiltshire e Gilles Trehin? – Lo studio della sindrome autistica e delle sue ‘isole di abilità’ può aiutarea comprendere i meccanismi della creatività umana?

Are images in the Tractatus isomorphic to facts?

The notion of image (Bild) is a fundamental one in the Tractatus. This notion is immediately introduced in the text after the brief ontological section, because it serves to give an account in logical terms of our relationship with the world. The relationship between fact and image is generally considered a relationship governed by a form of isomorphism. Here I want to maintain that it is not a matter isomorphism, but instead of homomorphism.

Language Game: calculus or Pragmatic act?

The authors have tried to make the potentiality inherent in the concept of the linguistic game evident by taking it back to its original context in the work of Wittgenstein. This paper aims to re-examine some features of Wittgenstein’s thought, considering in particular the notion of ‘language-game’. The authors believe that the language-game might play a role in overcoming once and for all the classic distinction between semantics and pragmatics. We deal with the exegetical discussion of the notion ‘language-game’ as it was interpreted in two different senses: as a synonym of calculus or as a minimal unit of linguistic activity that is directed to obtaining certain pragmatic effects in a s…

La distinzione tra lingua e linguaggio e la riflessione wittgensteiniana su Sprache

In questo articolo si sostiene che la distinzione tipica delle lingue romanza tra lingua e linguaggio sia d'ostacolo per la comprensione dell'uso che Wittgenstein fa del termiche Sprache costringendo di volta in volta a tradurre in un modo e nell'altro. Un 'evidenza del problema è dato nelle variabilità in cui il termine anche in contesti simili viene tradotto. Il problema non è di natura lessicografica ma relativo ad una differente ipotesi sul rapporto che lega lingua e linguaggio, intesi come una relazione ciò che è culturale (la lingua) e ciò che natuarale (facoltà di linguaggio). Distinzione che anche sulla base della riflessione wittgesteiniana andrebbe ripensata.

Introduction

This book illustrates how pragmatics transcends the boundaries of linguistics. This volume covers Gricean pragmatics as well as topics including: conversation and collective belief, the norm of assertion, speech acts, what a context is, the distinction between semantics and pragmatics and implicature and explicature, pragmatics and epistemology, the pragmatics of belief, quotation, negation, implicature and argumentation theory, Habermas’ Universal Pragmatics, Dascal’s theory of the dialectical self, theories and theoretical discussions on the nature of pragmatics from a philosophical point of view. Conversational implicatures are generally meaning augmentations on top of explicatures, whil…

Uexküll, la nozione di Umwelt e il parlare di animali

Metafore che risuonano.Linguaggio e corpo tra filosofia e neuroscienze

Obiettivo di questo lavoro è quello di individuare un meccanismo di comprensione delle metafore che possa rendere conto di quella sintonizzazione affettivo/ emotiva tra scrittore e lettore che spesso accompagna la lettura. Per definire questa esperienza, che chiameremo esperienza di “risonanza”, la dimensione sensoriale e quella del piacere possono essere essenziali. Il lavoro sarà condotto facendo ampio uso delle evidenze delle neuroscienze cognitive.

Language-Game: Calculus or Pragmatic Act?

We have tried to make the potentiality inherent in the concept of the linguistic game evident by taking it back to its original context in the work of Wittgenstein. This paper aims to re-examine some features of Wittgenstein’s thought, considering in particular the notion of ‘language-game’. We believe that the language-game might play a role in overcoming once and for all the classic distinction between semantics and pragmatics. We deal with the exegetical discussion of the notion ‘language-game’ as it was interpreted in two different senses: as a synonym of calculus or as a minimal unit of linguistic activity that is directed to obtaining certain pragmatic effects in a societal context. T…

Segno, simbolo in Wittgestein

Il volume indaga la linguisticità della cognizione umana a partire dalle nozioni wittgensteinianedi Immagine, segno e simbolo e proposizione cui sono dedicati i primi quattro capitoli. Il volume si segnala per una innovativa lettura della relazione di raffigurazione tra Immagine e mondo basata sulla relazione matematica di omomorfismo. Il V e ultimo capitolo basato sulle opere del secondo wittgensntein prende in esame le osservazioni del filosofo sulla cognizione animale.

The language game of lost meaning: Using literal meaning as a metalinguistic resource

AbstractBy literal meaning (LM) we usually refer to a theoretical notion which is at the center of a big debate involving philosophers and linguists with various orientations. At the same time, LM is rooted in a linguistic intuition of the speaker, which we could formulate as follows: words taken in isolation have a meaning. Adopting this general take on LM, we are using a notion of LM that seems incompatible with any research program of a contextualist type; I will show, instead, that in a radically contextualist (and Wittgensteinian) perspective, this notion of LM can have legitimate circulation in particular types of language games. I will propose a recovery of the notion of LM saving th…

Russell Wittgenstein: la riflessione logica e l'esperienza della guerra

The first World War had a great impact on some areas of philosophy such as ethics and political philosophy, but this impact is more controversial in other ares such as logic or epistemology. In this paper we discuss the relevant consequences of this war in the logic-philosphical thought of Bertrand Russell and Ludwig Wittgenstein

introduzione a Linguaggi e istituzioni. Discorsi, monete, riti

Introduzione a "Linguaggi e istituzioni. Discorsi, monete, riti" numero monografico di RIFL 2014. Nell'introduzione gli autori, problematizzando il nesso tra le nozioni impiegate nel titolo, spiegano le ragioni del numero monografico.

Logic and the Myth of the Perfect Language

We argue that the dream of a ‘perfect language’ – namely, a universal, unambiguous and semantically transparent medium of expression –, whose intriguing story has been told by Umberto Eco (1993), is deeply intertwined with the myth of instant rationality: the idea that a perfect language is one in which all logical relations becomeimmediatly visible, so that the language itself “does the thinkingfor us” (Frege 1884). In the first part of this paper we trace this versionof the dream in the works of Leibniz, Frege, Russell and Wittgenstein. In the second part we re-examine it in the light of more recent negative results in logic and theoretical computer science.

Come si gioca ai gochi linguistici?

This paper aims to rethink some features of Wittgenstein’s thought, examining in particular the notion of “language-game.” A discussion of this notion is a way of rethinking the role played by context in linguistic processes. It is a role that cannot be understood if we do not focus on the topic for which the “language game” is played. In particular some characteristics of “language game” will be examined: topicality, broader normativity and multimodality. These characteristics will be applied to some actual “language games” like the standingman of Istanbul.

ABDUCTIVE INFERENCES IN PRAGMATIC PROCESSES

Abstract In pragmatic theories, the notion of inference plays a central role, together with the communicative act in which it is activated. Although some scholars, such as Levinson, Sperber and Wilson, propose detailed and accurate analyses of this notion, we will maintain that these analyses can be better systematized if seen through Peirce’s notion of abduction. We will try to maintain that the variety of inferential processes in play in a linguistic act is mostly of an abductive nature. Moreover, we will maintain that the typological tripartition of abductions discussed by Eco (1981) allows to account for a signi cant part of the mechanisms involved in the comprehension of an utterance, …

armonia e contrappunto. Jacob von Uexküll tra etologia e ontologia

Lakoff & Johnson lettori di Blumenberg? Le analogie tra metaforologia e teoria della metafora concettuale

This paper aims at showing the analogies between Hans Blumenberg’s Metaphorology and George Lakoff & Mark Johnson’s Conceptual Metaphor Theory. Starting from the analysis of the proportion for which ABSOLUTE METAPHOR: METAPHORICAL EXPRESSIONS = BACKGROUND METAPHOR: CONCEPTUAL METAPHOR, we propose to compare Blumenberg’s Metaphorology with Lakoff & Johnson’s Conceptual Metaphor Theory, outlining similarities and differences in reference to: (a) the fundamental notions on which the two theories are based, (b) the methods and (c) the relationship between language-thought-culture assumed by the two theories. However, the reconstruction of the relation between the two theoretical paradig…

Genio e sregolatezza. Note sul pensiero autistico.

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recensione a M. Onofri, La ragione in contumacia, Donzelli, roma, 2007

L'opacità linguistica del potere

"Voyage a l'ile de Motya"in Fabrizio Clerici, Sellerio, Palermo, 2007.

Perspectives on language use and pragmatics.

recensione: Alessandro Capone (ed.), Perspectives on language use and pragmatics. A volume in memory of Sorin Stati, München (Lincom Europa) 2010,

La verità avvelenata

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