Questions tagged [philosophy-of-language]
for philosophical questions concerning the nature, origins, and usage of natural language
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What did Nietzsche mean by “a word is the copy in sound of a nerve stimulus”?
In On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense, Nietzsche wrote (my emphasis):
If he will not be satisfied with truth in the form of tautology, that is to say, if he will not be content with empty husks, ...
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Extensional context: "S believes in x"
I know that there is some research in philosophy on the difference between (A) "S believes that p" and (B) "S believes in x" (e.g. H. H. Price and Gendler Szabó). But I cannot find ...
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Why is "Colourless green ideas sleep furiously" considered meaningless?
Forewarning: I'm a philosopher, and I'm broadly ignorant of linguistics, so forgive me in advance for any misconceptions or stupid questions.
I think that it's regarded as common knowledge in ...
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Hidden philosophy in languages?
The 'usual self-introduction' in English is 'I am [name]' or 'My name is [name].' The former indicates that someone's name is something they are, while the latter suggests that the name is a property ...
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Are there ways to convey any type of knowledge from one language to another?
In terms of linguistic possibility, is it possible to translate any term from one language to another? Expanding, to what extent is it possible to translate scientific or philosophical terms, for ...
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What is the philosophy of words in languages? [closed]
It has always been a question for me that when we humans did not have a language to communicate with each other and then we needed to create a language to communicate with each other, how exactly did ...
user42122
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Is PIE weyh₁ (to hunt, persecute) somehow related to PIE weyk (to separate, to select for sacrifice)
I am amateurishly passionate about etymologies (especially of my native Romanian) but more seriously interested in the anthropological theories of René Girard and Walter Burkert, which both ...
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Is Linguistic Nihilism a legitimate philosophical/linguistic position?
By Linguistic Nihilism, a subcategory of Nihilism (the position that denies value/ability/meaning/etc.), I mean the position that ...
There's A Problem: Any, all languages are inadequate for every ...
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Seemingly discipline-wide dismissal of Linguistic Relativity and Post-Structuralism: Who still works with and supports these theories?
Many academics appear to immediately dismiss the mention of linguistic relativity/ Sapir-Whorf hypothesis because its been... supposedly debunked? I am wondering if the theory's critics offer a ...
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Is meaning prescribed?
The way I see it, there's two aspects to the choice between the descriptivistic and prescriptivist approach. There's the ought aspect; how ought we view the meaning of words? Then there's the is ...
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On the Epistemology of Comparative and Historical linguistics [closed]
I have asked a few questions before relating to PIE, proto-languages theory and the comparative method. As these are technical areas I am unfamiliar with but thanks to some previous answers I am ...
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When are 'or' and 'unless' exclusive in (daily) English?
I have two questions since I saw this SE answer.
First, for the following sentence:
English 'or' is only exclusive when only one premise is possible: 'You hydrate or you don't hydrate.' or 'I saw a ...
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"Matter" and "What Matters"; "Substance" and "Of Substance"
This thought is directed at those who have an interest in the deeper meaning of language and how it connects to our perspective of reality. Perhaps a bit philosophical. If this is not the proper place,...
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Why do some Indo-European languages have genders and some don't?
In some languages, like German and French, every noun has a gender and each gender has its article. Whereas languages like English and Persian do not have genders. Why is that?
Even though these ...
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What purpose do obscure words serve?
Inspired by a question about a rare, obsolete word psithurism.
What purpose in human language is served by having words, communicative acts, that are very unlikely to communicate anything due to the ...
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Bibliography for a beginner in philosophy of language
In my main time, I am a mathematician working in logic and category theory. As a logician, I am familiar with some bits of philosophy of language.
Stuff I have read:
Word and object, Quine.
Naming ...
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Is DNA a language?
DNA is commonly referred to as a language. For example, I can see that DNA is made up of nucleotides (ATGC) that form meaningful units (genes, chromosomes, etc). DNA gets transmitted to future ...
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Linguistics and Continental Philosophy
I'm a Linguistics major at OSU, I have one semester left. During my time here, I've tried to read whatever I could on philosophy of language on the side, especially from people who aren't usually ...
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How to understand "otherwise experience very largely" in the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis? [closed]
I’m a Chinese and can’t understand a classic text from The Status Of Linguistics As A Science (1929) by Edward Sapir.
We see and hear and otherwise experience very largely as we do because the ...
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Discrepancy between Classical Logic, Set Theory, Propositional Logic and Languages [closed]
In logic, "Or" strictly refers to logical disjuntion, while "And" strictly refers to logical conjuction.
But in common parlance, both can fill the role of Logical Disjunction
I understand that one ...
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Is a text with orthographic or grammatic mistakes in a language X still a text in that language X?
Let us suppose that we have a text that in its majority follows the orthographic or grammatical rules of a language X, but 10% of the words have orthographic mistakes, and 10% of the sentences have ...
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Examples of words that are monomorphemic in English, but polymorphemic in other languages
I'm looking for words that are monomorphemic in English – preferably basic words describing things in nature such as star, water, tree, grass, etc. – but polymorphemic in other languages. It would be ...
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Name for the view that ambiguities in natural language are imperfections of it?
For instance, in natural language, "or" is slightly different from logical OR, "some" is slightly different from logical EXISTS, etc.
What is the name of the belief that these discrepancies are ...
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Is there a linguistic notion of a "static" vs "dynamic" noun?
I would have typed a clearer question in the title, but it would have been way too long.
By "static," I mean a word or phrase that refers to one object, and one object only. ex.
The Eiffel Tower
The ...
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How is a meaningful sentence or paragraph constructed?
I don't have a formal background of linguistics, but I'd like to know how a sentence or paragraph becomes meaningful to a reader, and how one can construct that. I think it falls to the areas of ...
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To which extent language exists disconnected from the physical world?
If I would put you in a closed room with a computer containing terabytes of alien written symbols. Those aliens are from another dimension where the physical laws are different and our understanding ...
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Is there any "standard" definition of "linguistic input"?
Recently, I've started wondering how to characterize "linguistic input" and realized that the notion is very rarely unpacked. It seems as if everyone takes it to be obvious, and immediately goes to ...
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Does Reduplication oppose any Gricean Maxim?
Reduplication (a natural language feature) which changes meaning, pluralize, emphasize etc. is basically doubling of the word, partially doubling it or doubling it with phonetic constraints.
Grice's ...
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Making Sense of Nonsense: [Corner/Quine] Quotes!
Currently working on a problem set where we are using quine quotes (corner quotes) and normal quotes to distinguish use and mention. In class I felt that examples were much simpler, both of these ...
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Who first said that no two words mean the exact same?
A friend of mine told me that German philologists (whom he did not name) in the 18th century were the first ones to argue that in any natural language no two words can mean exactly the same. Is this ...
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examples for indoeuropean languages which are related to each other in different ways [closed]
I am currently writing an essay on Ludwig Wittgenstein's Family Resemblance Analogy (Philosophy of Language) and I need your help to find a neat example.
I have thought of indoeuropean languages as ...
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Is this what English/Mandarin Chinese or other 21st century dominant langauges would eventually do too? (details below)(yup that's opinion based) [closed]
Umbrians, for example, continued to make inscriptions in their language for centuries after Roman annexation. But eventually the power and status of Latin prevailed, particularly after all residents ...
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Morphology vs Etymology
Morphology is the component of grammar that builds words out of units of meaning(morphemes) where a morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit of language.
Etymology is the study of the origin of words ...
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Are there any two languages which have been interpreted to different forms from speech?
I have absolutely no idea where to begin with this question, but I think I can summarise it in such a way that someone might know the answer.
The exact thing I'm looking at is if two people met and ...
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What is the minimal set of words that make a language "complete"?
In programming languages, there is a concept of turing completeness - whenever a system reaches "turing completeness", it is capable of emulating any programming language and, thus, as expressive as ...
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Is math a language?
Is math a language? Is "language" a comprehensive description of mathematics? Maybe this is just a trivial description... or possibly there something about mathematics that is missed by describing it ...
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Usage of pluperfect in English to talk about metaphysical possibility in the present
I hope that this is the right SE site to ask my question (as opposed to philosophy.SE and english.SE).
I am interested in and know some logic, so I talk often with philosopher of language, even ...
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How would a trained linguist describe this hypothesis of Symbolic Leverage
Context
Two economics students are attempting to describe a concept of language, but do not know of any formally-recognized terms or research that explain this concept.
They believe there is an ...
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Besides logics, what mathematical tools are used in the study of linguistics?
I learned of connections between linguistics and category theory when I'm learning the application of category theory in quantum field theory. Being aware that axiomatic set theory (logics) is ...
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To be or not to be - you got to be somewhere to be something or you are where you are? [closed]
I wonder, in Spanish we have to different words for to be (location) and to be (description) from my point of view, as a natural Spanish speaker tho I've spoken English all my life, just not as much, ...
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Could we rank languages, saying one is superior to the other?
Now and then I am faced with claims that language A is better than B, because of some grammar rules or words or ...
But is there really a standard or a method to analyse a language from different ...
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What are the practical implications of Ludwig Wittgenstein's theories in the field of linguistics?
I was wondering how has the field of linguistics was changed (altered? untouched?) by Ludwig Wittgenstein's theories in Tractatus and the Philosophical Investigations.
All Wittgenstein's work deals ...
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Truth-neutral, truth-indifferent, & truth-committed verbs?
In English,
I go to the store.
is understood to mean
It is true that I go to the store.
Suppose I want to succinctly express
I am indifferent to whether it is true or false that I go to ...
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Examples of small, minimalistic natural languages?
I was reading about a constructed language called "Toki Pona" that is touted to have only 120 words.
I wanted to know are there any examples of any natural languages notable for their simplicity or ...
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dictionary with the smallest number of circularly defined words
Motivation: words in a dictionary are defined in terms of other words, but at some point it becomes circular: words defined by other words that have also been defined using some of the same words. ...
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Searching bibliography to develop a pure a priori language
I need some help with bibliography to fill some topics that a need for my project.
Im trying to create a pure a priori language where phonetic and syllable are linked to the meaning of the roots of ...
user9913
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What philologists influenced Wittgenstein's idea of family resemblance?
Wittgenstein coined the term "family resemblance" for collections with multiple overlapping similarities as opposed to universally shared traits. Wikipedia mentions that "It has been suggested that ...
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How does 'unless' mean 'or' or 'if not'? [closed]
Source: p 139, Introduction to Logic (2 ed, 2010) by Harry J. Gensler.
[1.] Translate
“unless”
as “or.” ... [eg: A unless B = B unless A = Either A or B].
[2.] “Unless” is also ...
user5306
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How can two phrases refer to the same object, but have different meanings?
Source: Lecture 1-5 (transcription), ... How to Reason and Argue, by Prof W Sinnott-Armstrong
The following is from a question that pops up during the video at 3 min 14 seconds.
[Question:] When a ...
user5306
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What are the blanket or general terms representing these linguistic pitfalls?
Are there collective, sweeping official terms that comprise linguistic traps such as these?
Etymological fallacy
Folk etymology
False friend
False cognate
False etymology
user5306