Talking About
Author | : Elmar Unnsteinsson |
Publisher | : Oxford University Press |
Total Pages | : 218 |
Release | : 2022-07-14 |
ISBN-10 | : 9780192865137 |
ISBN-13 | : 0192865137 |
Rating | : 4/5 (137 Downloads) |
Download or read book Talking About written by Elmar Unnsteinsson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022-07-14 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Combining new insights from cognitive science and speech art theory, Unnsteinsson develops a compelling theory of singular reference which avoids well-known puzzles and objections. The theory, called Edenic intentionalism, is grounded in a mechanistic perspective on explanation in cognitive science and a new Gricean account of speaker meaning and speaker reference. Talking About: An Intentionalist Theory of Reference develops an account of the mental state of identity confusion and separates questions about the nature of representational acts and representational states. Unnsteinsson proposes a division of labour, but Edenic intentionalism is strictly a theory of intentional, mind-directed representational acts, taking speech acts as its paradigm case. Talking About: An Intentionalist Theory of Reference argues that mental mechanisms ought to be postulated to explain human cognitive capacities. Pragmatic competence is the capacity to successfully produce utterances with a communicative intention. By examining the characteristic function and malfunction of the mechanism for referential competence, the study shows that confused reference should be understood as a type of malfunction. This is the core thesis of Edenic intentionalism: that the identity confusion disrupts the normal function of the speech art of reference.