Semantics and the objects of assertion

This paper is about the relationship between two questions: the question of what the objects of assertion are and the question of how best to theorise about ‘shifty’ phenomena like modality and tense. I argue that the relationship between these two questions is less direct than is often supposed. I then explore the consequences of this for a number of debates in the philosophy of language.

[1]  Pranav Anand,et al.  De de se , 2006 .

[2]  Nat Hansen,et al.  Literal Meaning: Introduction , 2003 .

[3]  D. Lewis.  Attitudes De Dicto and De Se , 1979 .

[4]  Irene Heim,et al.  Features on bound pronouns , 2005 .

[5]  Robert Stalnaker.  Context And Content , 1999 .

[6]  R. Lakoff.  Language in Context. , 1972 .

[7]  Michael Dummett,et al.  The logical basis of metaphysics , 1991 .

[8]  Kiyomi Kusumoto,et al.  On the Quantification over Times in Natural Language , 2005 .

[9]  Pranav Anand,et al.  Shifty Operators in Changing Contexts , 2004 .

[10]  O. Percus.  Constraints on Some Other Variables in Syntax , 2000 .

[11]  A. Prior.  Papers On Time And Tense , 1968 .

[12]  B. Weatherson.  ATTITUDES AND RELATIVISM , 2008 .

[13]  David R. Dowty.  Tenses, time adverbs, and compositional semantic theory , 1982 .

[14]  Philippe Schlenker,et al.  Ontological Symmetry in Language: A Brief Manifesto , 2006 .

[15]  David Adger,et al.  Phi theory : phi-features across modules and interfaces , 2008 .

[16]  A. Kratzer.  More Structural Analogies Between Pronouns and Tenses , 1998 .

[17]  J. Stanley.  Modality and what is said , 2002 .

[18]  D. Lewis.  Philosophical Papers: Volume II , 1987 .

[19]  M. Cresswell.  Entities and indices , 1990 .

[20]  J. Stanley.  Context and Logical Form , 2000 .

[21]  J. King.  Tense, modality, and semantic values , 2003 .

[22]  J. McCawley,et al.  Language, Thought, and Logic , 1995 .

[23]  Irene Heim,et al.  Semantics in generative grammar , 1998 .

[24]  Kiyomi Kusumoto.  Tense in embedded contexts , 1999 .

[25]  G. Gazdar,et al.  Syntax and semantics 9: Pragmatics: Peter Cole, ed., New York: Academic Press. 1978. pp. xii + 340. , 1980 .

[26]  Philippe Schlenker,et al.  Propositional attitudes and indexicality : a cross categorial approach , 1999 .

[27]  S. Yalcin.  Epistemic Modals , 2007 .

[28]  Howard K. Wettstein,et al.  Themes from Kaplan , 1989 .

[29]  Matthew Stone,et al.  The Anaphoric Parallel Between Modality and Tense , 1997 .

[30]  A. Kratzer.  Making a Pronoun: Fake Indexicals as Windows into the Properties of Pronouns , 2009, Linguistic Inquiry.

[31]  B. Partee.  Some Structural Analogies between Tenses and Pronouns in English , 1973 .

[32]  J. Schaffer.  Perspective in Taste Predicates and Epistemic Modals , 2011 .

[33]  Tanya Matthews,et al.  Proceedings from Semantics and Linguistic Theory IX , 1999 .

[34]  Dilip Ninan,et al.  De Se Attitudes: Ascription and Communication15 , 2010 .

[35]  T. Stephenson.  Judge dependence, epistemic modals, and predicates of personal taste , 2007 .

[36]  Mark Richard,et al.  Tense, propositions, and meanings , 1982 .

[37]  Herman Cappelen,et al.  Relativism and Monadic Truth , 2009 .

[38]  Davis Lewis,et al.  INDEX, CONTEXT, AND CONTENT , 1980 .

[39]  P. Schlenker.  A Plea For Monsters , 2003 .

[40]  Timothy Williamson,et al.  Knowledge and Its Limits , 2000 .

[41]  P. Shlenker.  Person and binding (A partial survey): 2335 , 2004 .

[42]  Massimo Marraffa,et al.  Philosophical Papers, vol. I , 1994 .

[43]  John MacFarlane,et al.  Future contingents and relative truth , 2003 .

[44]  David Lewis.  Papers in Philosophical Logic , 1997 .

[45]  A. Stechow.  Binding by Verbs: Tense, Person and Mood under Attitudes , 2002 .