Chomskyan Arguments Against Truth-Conditional Semantics Based on Variability and Co-predication

In this paper I try to show that semantics can explain word-to-world relations and that sentences can have meanings that determine truth-conditions. Critics like Chomsky typically maintain that only speakers denote, i.e., only speakers, by using words in one way or another, represent entities or events in the world. However, according to their view, individual acts of denotations are not explained just by virtue of speakers’ semantic knowledge. Against this view, I will hold that, in the typical cases considered, semantic knowledge can account for the denotational uses of words of individual speakers

Phenomenal Contrast Arguments: What they Achieve

Phenomenal contrast arguments (PCAs) are normally employed as arguments showing that a certain mental feature contributes to (the phenomenal character of) experience, that certain contents are represented in experience and that kinds of sui generis phenomenologies such as cognitive phenomenology exist. In this paper we examine a neglected aspect of such arguments, i.e., the kind of mental episodes involved in them, and argue that this happens to be a crucial feature of the arguments. We use linguistic tools to determine the lexical aspect of verbs and verb phrases – the tests for a/telicity and for duration. We then suggest that all PCAs can show is the presence of a generic achievement-like phenomenology, especially in the cognitive domain, which contrasts with the role that PCAs are given in the literature

The Linguistic Determination of Conscious Thought Contents

In this paper we address the question of what determines the content of our conscious episodes of thinking, considering recent claims that phenomenal character individuates thought contents. We present one prominent way for defenders of phenomenal intentionality to develop that view and then examine ‘sensory inner speech views’, which provide an alternative way of accounting for thought-content determinacy. We argue that such views fare well with inner speech thinking but have problems accounting for unsymbolized thinking. Within this dialectic, we present an account of the nature of unsymbolized thinking that accords with and can be seen as a continuation of the activity of inner speech, while offering a way of explaining thought-content determinacy in terms of linguistic structures and representation

More on pejorative language: insults that go beyond their extension

Slurs have become a big topic of discussion both in philosophy and in linguistics. Slurs are usually characterised as pejorative terms, co-extensional with other, neutral, terms referring to ethnic or social groups. However, slurs are not the only ethnic/social words with pejorative senses. Our aim in this paper is to introduce a different kind of pejoratives, which we will call “ethnic/social terms used as insults”, as exemplified in Spanish, though present in many other languages and mostly absent in English. These are ethnic terms like gitano, ‘Romani’, which can have an extensional and neutral use, but also a pejorative meaning building on a negative stereotypical representation of the Romani community

La teoría CQ y el fisicismo

Sobre la base de las teorías de la causalidad de Salmon y Dowe es posible construir un argumento sencillo para un fisicismo fuerte. Partiendo del «dictum de Alexander», «ser es tener poderes causales» se puede concluir que, en lo tocante a propiedades, no puede haber en el mundo más que magnitudes físicas, pues sólo ellas entran en relaciones causales. Este argumento, sin embargo, es demasiado simple; en este artículo analizo una manera mas sutil y convincente de apoyar un fisicismo fuerte con las teoría de Cantidades Conservadas (QC) de Salmon y Dowe.A simple argument can be built for strong physicism on the basis of Salmon and Dowe's theories of causality. Starting from Alexander's dictum, «to be is to have causal powers», one can conclude that in terms of properties, there can be no other world than physical magnitudes since only they enter into causal relations. This argument, however, is overly simple. In this article I analyse a subtler and more convincing way of supporting strong physicism using Salmon and Dowe's conserved quantities (CQ) theory

Usos cognitivos del lenguaje

Agustín Vicente defiende en este artículo la tesis según la cual el lenguaje depende del pensamiento en el sentido de que su naturaleza y desarrollo en los hablantes requieren que existan unas capacidades cognitivas de base. Asimismo, se propone que aunque el uso del lenguaje sea fundamentalmente comunicativo, también participa en los procesos de pensamiento

The Poetics of Transformation and Becoming in Linda Hogan’s Solar Storms

Trabajo de fin de Grado. Grado en Estudios Ingleses. Curso académico 2019-2020[ES]Este trabajo se centra en el proceso de las comunidades y escritores Indígenas de descolonizar la lengua inglesa a través del reconocimiento de sus realidades culturales adaptando no solo el inglés gramaticalmente, sino semánticamente, para así mostrar la relación que los humanos deberían compartir con la tierra. En concreto, el ensayo muestra el concepto de “Grammar of Animacy,” que en español podría ser traducido como la “Gramática de lo Animado,” que Robin Wall Kimmerer nos enseña en su libro Braiding Sweetgrass. Esta gramática se aplica a la novela Solar Storms de Linda Hogan. Mantengo que al reconocer la vida y autonomía de la tierra y el agua, la protagonista de Solar Storms, Angel, es capaz de desestabilizar el uso colonial que la colonización de América asoció al lenguaje. Angel es capaz de cambiar la forma en la que ve el mundo gracias a su interacción con la tierra de sus ancestros, y por ende, es capaz de cambiar su entendimiento del sistema colonial que había perpetuado las desigualdades y la discriminación contra los Indígenas. La tierra le enseña la gramática de lo animado, ayudándole a cambiar la realidad de la lengua inglesa para que pueda agradecer y reconocer su relación con ella, descolonizando el inglés en el proceso.[EN]This paper examines the process of decolonizing English by Indigenous communities and writers. By adapting English not only grammatically, but semantically, they acknowledge their cultural realities while emphasizing the interdependence of humans and the land. In particular, this paper draws on Robin Wall Kimmerer’s concept of “Grammar of Animacy” and applies it to Linda Hogan’s Solar Storms. In so doing, I argue that by recognising the land and water animacy and livingness, the protagonist of Solar Storms, Angel, is able to challenge the colonial uses that had been associated to the English language by the colonial system. Angel’s contact with the land of her ancestors results in the transformation of her understanding of the land and, as a consequence, her understanding of the colonial system that perpetuates the inequalities and discrimination against Indigenous people. The land teaches her the grammar of animacy, helping her to transform the English language so that she can give thanks and acknowledge the connection she shares with the land, decolonizing English in the process