Natural languages all contain constructions the interpretation of which depends upon the situation in which they are used. In Language and Context, Jason Stanley presents a series of essays which develop a theory of how the situation in which we speak interacts with the words we use to help produce what we say. The reason we can so smoothly operate with sentences that can be used to express very different items of information, Stanley argues, is that there are linguistically mandated constraints on the effects of the situation on what we say. These linguistically mandated constraints are most evident in the cases of sentences containing explicit pronouns, such as 'She is a mathematician', where interpretation of the information expressed is guided by the use of the pronoun 'she'. But even when such explicit pronouns are lacking, our sentences provide similar cues to allow our interlocutors to determine the information expressed. We are, in the main, confident that our interlocutors will smoothly grasp what we say, because the grammar and meaning of our sentences encodes these constraints. In defending this theory, Stanley pays close attention to specific cases of context-sensitive constructions, such as quantified noun phrases, comparative adjectives, and conditionals. Philosophers and cognitive scientist have appealed to the dependence of what is intuitively said by a sentence on the situation in which it is uttered to argue against the possibility of a systematic theory of meaning for natural language. The theory developed in this book is a vigorous defence of the possibility of a systematic theory of meaning for natural language against these influential tendencies.
Reviews
an outstanding contribution; the state of art in semantics and the philosophy of language; a must for everyone intending to take part in the semantic-pragmatics border debate...superb, illuminating * Dorota Zielinska. Journal of Intercultural Pragmatics *
This volume by Stanley is certainly an important voice in the semantics/pragmatics debate, a sulutary reminder of the (important/pervasive) role of grammar and semantics in interpretation, and a source of most illuminating methodological considerations... this is a most important book, whose ideas will have many ramifications * Alessandro Capone , Australian Journal of Linguistics *
Although the individual essays collected in Language in Context have already been widely read and discussed, it is useful to have them collected in a single volume. Reading the essays together, framed by an informative Introduction and Postscript, one can appreciate the richness, complexity and breadth of Jason Stanley's theoretical framework. These essays represent the state of the art in semantics and the philosophy of language and are mandatory reading for anyone working in these and related areas...There is no question that Language in Context is an outstanding achievement. Not since Stephen Neale's Descriptions has a book brought the apparatus of formal semantics and linguistic theory to bear on issues in the philosophy of language in such a constructive and illuminating way. * Gary Ostertag, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *



Book Information
ISBN 9780199225927
Author Jason Stanley
Format Hardback
Page Count 274
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 576g
Dimensions(mm) 240mm * 160mm * 20mm