Search results for "Contextualism"
showing 10 items of 16 documents
The language game of lost meaning: Using literal meaning as a metalinguistic resource
2019
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…
Deep Interpretive Disagreements and Theory of Legal Interpretation
2016
This paper deals with deep interpretive disagreements (DID): very profound divergences that may occur in legal interpretation (on single cases, or on similar cases) among judges and jurists. These divergences involve alternative interpretations of certain expressions or phrases (for instance, “human person”, “dignity”, “personal autonomy”, “life”, “health”) and may lead, under certain conditions, to incompatible interpretations of the legal sentences that incorporate these expressions. The most important examples of this kind of legal sentences are constitutional provisions that express principles asserting legal rights. The main thesis of this paper is that DID represent genuine, faultless…
Boris “Ich bin drin” Becker (‘Boris I am in Becker’). Syntax, semantics and pragmatics of a special naming construction
2016
Constructions such as Germ. Boris “Ich bin drin” Becker (‘Boris I am in Becker’) follow a startling pattern. A quotation (“Ich bin drin”) is inserted in between two constituents of a complex personal-name construction (Boris Becker). The quotation relates to the person bearing this name. Therefore, the whole construction cannot be understood without massive contextual knowledge, i.e. knowing when, where, and why Boris Becker said so, and how this is relevant in the interpretation of the construction. In general, N “CP” N constructions such as Boris “Ich bin drin” Becker not only differ from canonical personal-name constructions such as Boris Becker in requiring the import of background know…
On “R” in phrasal compounds – a contextualist approach
2015
Abstract In phrasal compounds of the type XP+Y, one can assume a relation “R” that holds between the head and the non-head just as in ordinary N+N compounds. The paper discusses the question how “R” should be understood. Three recent approaches, i.e., construction morphology, parallel architecture view, and indexicalism are discussed. It is argued that all approaches lack a pragmatic component which is necessary for modeling pragmatic inferencing with respect to phrasal compounds. Thus, an “unspecific meaning” approach to the semantics of phrasal compounds, together with contextualist views on pragmatic enrichment, is a serious alternative to the approaches discussed.
Polysemy and gestaltist computation. some notes on gestaltist compositionality
2019
The paper is devoted to the concept of Gestaltist Compositionality. It is divided into two parts. The first part will introduce a minimal definition of «Gestaltist Compositionality». Moreover, it will prove that the computations implemented by this model of compositionality are sufficiently flexible to ensure the presence of several orders of semantic determination. The second part will be devoted to an investigation of the consequences of this result with particular reference to the identification of some versions of compositionality which relax the condition of semantic atomism without weakening the links of determination between understanding of the compounds and understanding of the com…
Word-Formation and Contextualism
2014
While there is, under the heading of “morphopragmatics”, some research on the relation of pragmatics and word-formation, especially with a focus on diminutives, the major theoretical models of word-formation do not account for the word-formation/pragmatics interface in any systematic fashion. Moreover, in recent contextualist approaches to the semantics/pragmatics interface, the typical grammatical unit referred to is the sentence (including words that constitute a sentence), but not word structure or the morpheme. Drawing on morphological data from German, I will show the influence of pragmatic processes and principles on word-formation, arguing that word structures are also units that may…
Il gioco linguistico del significato letterale
2018
Literal Meaning is a widely used notion, which seems to be well rooted in the strong intuition that words have a meaning in themselves. However, as pointed out in previous literature (e.g. RECANATI 2004), this theoretical notion seems to be problematic in accounting for some aspects of the nature of linguistic meaning. Embracing these criticisms, we will show how the heuristic power of this notion becomes apparent when looking at some specific types of contexts, namely those language games where it is necessary to retrieve the meaning of words in isolation. This will allow us to argue in favour of consistency of this notion with theoretical framework with a strong focus on the contextual na…
Theory of Legal Interpretation and Contextualism. Replies to Kristan, Poggi and Vignolo
2012
In this essay I will attempt to answer the critical observations made by Kristan, Poggi and Vignolo of my theory of legal interpretation. I express the opinion that, apart from some gaps and defects to be addressed, my theory can satisfactorily overcome this criticism. In answering these observations, I again stress the fruitfulness of moderate contextualism as a semantical point of reference for legal interpretation, also striving to deepen the notion of “background context”, and to clarify the differences among four types of interpretative disagreements. I also maintain that the most important and problematic issues in interpretative legal practices today are those which express, as in bi…
Penal Contextualism and Ideational Frameworks: A Guide for the Perplexed
2017
In my paper, I attempt a critical review of Nicola Lacey’s book In Search of Criminal Responsibility, by arguing, firstly, that she gives the categories of “character responsibility” and “capacity responsibility” an over-inclusive account, which results from her filling each of them with views that are not only disparate but also based, at least in part, on conflicting principles; and, secondly, that Lacey’s spelling out of various conceptions of “criminal responsibility” necessarily entails an underlying unitary definition of its subject matter, that is, the concept of “criminal responsibility,” which seems to conflict with her (version of) penal contextualism.
Keeping the Conversational Score: Constraints for an Optimal Contextualist Answer?
2005
Conversational contextualism states that the truth-conditions expressed by knowledge-attributing sentences vary relative to the context of utterance. This context is determined partly by different standards the person involved must meet in order to make the sentence true. I am concerned with the question of how these standards can be raised or lowered, and especially what happens to the standards and the conversational score when parties in a discussion push the conversational scores in different directions. None of the available options for an answer seems satisfying. I argue that this results from a misunderstanding of the characteristics of the situation at hand.