PHL313 Philosophy of Language Professor: Craig DeLancey
Office: CC217
Email: delancey@oswego.edu


Past Assignments
Part 1. Topics: Layout of the course. What is a Language? Is language uniquely human?

31 August
Homework 1. Write as succinctly as you can two lists. First, a list of the necessary and sufficient conditions for any language (system of communicated meanings). Your goal should be a list, as short as possible, of features; for each feature give an explanation of what you mean. It should be no more than a typewritten page. Second, what are the distinguishing features of human language? This might be the same list as you list for any language (in which case you think any language or system of meaning must be at least as powerful as human language), or it might include some additional special features (in which case you may think there can be simpler languages that lack some features of human language). This can be typed (if so, it should be 2 pages or less) or it can be handwritten (and so the equivalent of 2 typed pages or less).

Part 2. Topics: starting with reference. Mill. Frege's Distinctions. Meinong.

2 September
A reading.

Please read the passages from Mill's classic work on names. This is pages 284-289 in our textbook. While reading, ask yourself:
  • What is the difference between when a name connotes, and when and what it denotes?
  • Can you make a diagram or tree of the distinctions he makes here? Try it. I might ask you to share.

7 September
Homework 2. A little assignment. Look back at Mill's account of names. Write up your answers to the following questions please:

On Mill's account of names....
  • What is the difference between general and individual/singular names?
  • What is an example (of your own) of a general name?
  • What is an example (of your own) of an individual/singular name?
  • What is a collective name?
  • What is an example (of your own) of a collective name?
  • What is the difference between concrete and abstract names?
  • What is an example (of your own) of a concrete name?
  • What is an example (of your own) of an abstract name?
  • What is the difference between connotative and non- connotative names?
  • What is an example (of your own) of a non-connotative name?
  • What is an example (of your own) of a connotative name?
The examples you offer should be your own (not Mill's examples). You can re-use your examples -- an abstract name might be connotative, for example.
9 September
Reading and an assignment.

Please read the first several pages of Frege's On Sense and Reference: in our book, 217-220. (To constrast the translations, an online version is available here: http://mind.ucsd.edu/syllabi/00-01/phil235/a_readings/frege_S&R.html.) This is an important work that introduces an important distinction between sense and reference.

Homework 3. In your own words, (1) what is the puzzle with reference that Frege believes needs to be solved -- this regards the worry about a=a and a=b; and (2) how does Frege solve them with his distinction between sense and reference? Write this up in a page (preferably typed) and hand it in at the beginning of class.
14 September
Look at the first two pages of Russell's "On Denoting." Do your best to figure out what he's trying to say. We'll read this in class together and make some sense of it. This is, in the latest edition of our book, from pages 230 to the first column on 232.

Bring your book to class.
16 September
Now read in its entirety Bertrand Russell's classic paper, "On Denoting." In our book it is pages 230-238.

(This originally appeared in Mind, New Series, Vol. 14, No. 56 (Oct., 1905), pp. 479-493. That version of the paper is available via Jstor. From campus, you should be able to link directly to it via JSTOR here. If that doesn't work, you can log into JSTOR and use the reference above. JSTOR is here.)

You might find it helpful to look at the selection in our book labeled "Descriptions," which is Russell's later restatement of the same theory. But, even if not, read very closely the paragraph there that begins "It is possible to have much knowledge concerning a term described...." This is on page 244, column 2, in the latest edition. This paragraph states the most important consequence of Russell's theory.

September 19
Homework 4. Give a Russell-style description for each of the following. The first two are sentences including definite descriptions ("the...."), and you should offer (in English) a translation as per his paper "On Denoting". The next four are names, and should just be translated into descriptions uniquely true of that thing. The last two are tricky -- we've discussed proper names but they are general names, as Mill would have called them (some philosophers also sometimes call these natural kind terms). They should be translated into descriptions that are true of that kind of thing.
  1. The current King of the United States has gout.
  2. The current President of the United States is tall.
  3. Barak Hussein Obama
  4. Albert Einstein
  5. William Shakespeare
  6. Spongebob Squarepants
  7. water
  8. horse

September 21
Read the selection from Lecture I of Saul Kripke's Naming and Necessity, pages 290-294 in the recent edition of our text. This one is important -- it is an extremely influential book and the argument is very important.

September 23
Read the selection from Lecture II of Saul Kripke's Naming and Necessity, pages 294-303 in the recent edition of our text.

September 26
You can redo problems 3-8 of the fourth homework if you like, but you must use a property (or properties) in your description that we did not use in class. So, for example, instead of saying Einstein was the man who discovered relativity, you could say Einstein was the physicist who got the Nobel prize in physics in 1921.

This would be a good day also to assess our understanding of Kripke at the beginning of class with a few questions.

September 28
Please read the selection from Putnam's paper on the externalism in meaning, pages 306-312.

Homework 5 due at the begining of class. Answer the following questions as best you can based on your reading of Putnam.
  1. According to Putnam, what does "water" refer to here on Earth before we discover that water is H20?
  2. According to Putnam, what does "water" refer to here on Earth after we discover that water is H20?
  3. Is there any difference between these first two cases?
  4. According to Putnam, what does "water" refer to on twin-Earth before we discover that water is H20?
  5. According to Putnam, what does "water" refer to on twin-Earth after we discover that water is H20?
  6. Is there any difference between what "water" means here, and on twin Earth? Why?

October 3 and 5 and 7
The descriptivists fight back! Please read the selection by Searle ("Proper Names and Intentionality"). This is on pages 326-341 in our book. Think of "intentionality" as a fancy name for being a representation (and so we say anything with meaning, like a name, has -- when you think it, anyways -- intentionality). This reading is longer than we usually do, but, in addition to offering a response to Kripke, it reviews everything we've read and discussed, so it's very helpful as review and preparation. If you're rushing, read section VII first, and then go back and read it from the beginning. Also, we're spending the week, so you have more than enough time. Good opportunity for an in-class assignment, to give you an opportunity to get some feedback on your reading.

8 October
The philosopher Gary Varner, who does research on environmental ethics, will give our annual public philosophy lecture this year. You are invited to come if you like. It will be from 2:15 till 3:30 in Sheldon Hall Room 222. He will speak on "Personhood, Ethics, and Animal Cognition." It will be a talk accessible and of interest to anyone who wants to think about whether any non-human animals can be "persons." Cool stuff!
October 10
Exam on reference. Short essay answers and perhaps some multiple choice. Frege's puzzles for reference and his solution. Russell's description theory, Kripke's Causal Theory, Putnam's externalism, Searle's description theory. Recognizing readings. Applying the theories.

17 October
Test review and a homework due.

Sorry it's taking me so long to finish grading the tests. It's a bad week for me. I'll get them back to you on Monday, and over the weekend I'll send you all the grades I have and a mid-term grade.

Test review. Discussion of learning. Before class, please watch all five of the videos here. They are short and they can do you a ton of good.

Read the Ayer, Quine, Saussure hand-outs. A simple, short homework. Briefly -- this should only take about a single page, attempt a schematic account of: (1) how Saussure might account for the meaning of "blue" and of "water" -- specifically, what are the contrasting meanings? (2) A verificationist account of "Water is blue." (3) Some example positive and negative stimulus meanings as per Quine's theory, for "this is water."

21 October
Continue with Donald Davidson's paper, "Truth and Meaning."
24 October
Discussion of modal logic extension to the truth-based theory of meaning. Since there are no reading on this that are not very technical, I'm going to explain to you the idea.
26 October
Discussion of modal extension of truth-based theory, and of two-dimensionalism. Again, since there are no reading on this that are not very technical, I'm going to explain to you the idea.
28 October
Review of the meaning theory positions we've seen so far. Introduction to the use theory. Read sections 1-10 of Philosophical Investigations.
y 31 October
Use theory. Read to the end of our selection from Wittgenstein (Sections 1-32 of PI).
2, 4, 7 November
We'll take a bit of a hiatus from our progression, and before we study performative language, we'll consider an interesting paradox from Kripke.

Please read the Kripke selection, in our selection titled "On Rules and Priveate Language," pages 626-636 in the latest edition.
9 November
Austin. Please read "Performative Utterances," part I, pages 136-140 in the latest edition of our volume.

Homework: try to make a list, for our discussion, of as many different kinds of performatives as you can think of. Are there others than Austin describes (commands, questions, requests, greetings, congratulations, advisings, and warnings)? See if you can think of 5. I'll collect them, and we can share them in this class or the next. It might be hard, but do your best.
11 November
Austin. Please read "Performative Utterances," part II, pages 140-145 in the latest edition of our volume.
14 November
Please read "The Structure of Illocutionary Acts" pages 146ff, by Searle. Recommended but challenging is Searle "A Taxonomy of Illoctuionary Acts," page 157ff in our volume.
16 November
Homework. Try one of the utterances that we came up with together as a class (like "Dibs!" or "You're it!" or "You're fired!" or "Play ball" or etc.) and see if you can describe Searle's four conditions for it (propositional content, preparatory rule, sincerity rule, and essential rule). You should be able to do this in a paragraph or two. Does Searle's framework seem to you to capture what is going on in the speech act?

Reading. Because it was so influential, I think perhaps we should in this context discuss Grice's rules. These are widely cited, and so an important part of the discussion about speech acts. Please read the second section of the selection of Grice in our book "Logic and Conversation," and determine what the four Gricean Rules are.
18 November
Please read: "What Metaphors Mean" by Donald Davidson, in our book.

21 November
Please read Martinich's "A Theory of Metaphor" in our book.
28 November
Read B. L. Whorf's "The Relation of Habitual Thought and Behavior to Language." This is available here.
30 November, 2 December
Read Kay & Kempton, "What is the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis?"

Also we may look at the issue of language and epistemology. We'll discuss some other applications of the philosophy of language to epistemology (theory of knowledge). We might read Quine on the a priori, or instead just discuss some cases.
5 December
For this last week, we're going to have some in-class workshops to apply and compare and overall just think about the theories we've learned. Each class we'll consider some chunks of language and analyze or explain them in terms of the theories we've seen.

Today: review of names, definite descriptions, reference to the non-existent.

To prepare, write out your thoughts on the following questions to discuss in class:
  1. Suppose Clark Kent and Superman actually exist. What is Frege's argument for reference being insufficient to explain the meaning of a referent, using these names as an example?
  2. What is Frege's analysis of a name like "Clark Kent"?
  3. Now, consider that Clark Kent and Superman don't exist. What is their referent?
  4. What, according to Frege, does the sentence "The man from Krypton is Clark Kent" signify? What do its parts signfy?
  5. How would Russell analyze this last sentence? What puzzles does he think his analysis solves?
  6. What should Kripke say about the name "Clark Kent"?
7 December
Review of: externalism vs. Internalism for natural kind terms; use versus truth-based theory (and its versions) for declarartive phrases.

To prepare, write out your thoughts on the following questions to discuss in class:
  1. According to Frege, Russell, Searle, Kripke, Putnam, what does 'King Tut' mean in: "King Tut's tomb is made of gold"?
  2. According to Frege, Russell, Searle, Kripke, Putnam, what does 'gold' mean in: "King Tut's tomb is made of gold"?
  3. According to the two-dimensional theory, what does 'gold' mean in: "King Tut's tomb is made of gold"?
  4. How might we best explain the meaning of "King Tut's tomb is made of gold" according to Davidson?
  5. How might we best explain the meaning of "King Tut's tomb is made of gold" according to the modal extension of the truth-based theory?
  6. How might we best explain the meaning of "King Tut's tomb is made of gold" according to a use theory?
9 December
We need to continue our discussion of King Tut. Then, review of: rule paradox, performative language (Austin and Searle account), metaphor (simile theory, Davidson's theory, Martinich/Gricean theory). To prepare, write out your thoughts on the following questions to discuss in class:
  1. What distinguishes a phrase like, "Go!" (at a race) or "Could you open the window please?" from declarative speech?
  2. What are the conditions of success for utterances like these?
  3. For Searle, what features might these utterances all share?
  4. Consider: "Plate sin with gold, and the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks." What says Herr Davidson? Herr Martinich?
  5. What is the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis?
  6. What is the rule paradox of Kripkenstein?