Philosophy Stack Exchange
Philosophy Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [philosophy-of-language]

for philosophical questions concerning the nature, origins, and usage of natural language

The philosophy of language (Wikipedia) deals with the nature, origins, and usage of natural language. It explores the nature of linguistic truth and meaning, theories of reference, the cognition of language, pragmatics, and other topics.

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Since words are defined in terms of other words in dictionaries, leading to infinite loops, does it mean natural languages are meaningless?

Since words are defined in terms of other words in dictionaries, leading to infinite loops, does it mean natural languages are meaningless? Are infinitely recursive definitions valid? If we visualize the relationship graph of a dictionary, where…
xwb
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Is a human language a prison for a mind?

I am dealing with a question whether is a human language a prison for a mind and also whether is there something above a human language. my progress: I have read articles on wikipedia about metalinguistics and linguistic determinism. There are eight…
Jan
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Why is the Münchhausen trilemma an unsolved problem?

Why is the Münchhausen trilemma unsolved? Couldn't anybody find some reasons for proving/disproving it? Or are there other reasons for it being called "unsolved"? the trilemma If we ask of any knowledge: "How do I know that it's true?", we may…
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Does Google's latest translation tool support Jerry Fodor's Language of Thought Hypothesis?

Google recently updated their translation tool so that it can now translate between language pairs that it hadn't seen before, something they're calling "zero-shot translation." See here for the full paper and here for a summary. For example, they…
Alexander S King
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What are some good books about Wittgenstein's philosophy of language?

I'm a computer science PhD student which does some work in Knowledge Representation, and I have studied a lot of (mathematical) logic. As far as I remember from my high school philosophy classes, Wittgenstein has some prominent works concerning…
loudandclear
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What are some ways to read Wittgenstein's Tractatus other than resolute/irresolute?

There are, at present, two dominant ways to read Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (TLP). One is called the irresolute reading, the other the resolute reading. The irresolute reading takes what is called an inaustere view of nonsense:…
Chuck
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Is a language its dictionary?

A dictionary defines words in a language, in terms of other words in that same language. An English dictionary is not the same as a Spanish dictionary, simply because the sets of English words and Spanish words are not the same. Dictionaries are…
Dan Brumleve
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Is there a point to arguing about the meaning of words?

Firstly, I should mention that I am not sure, whether this the right place to ask such a question, but I am trying it anyway. Furthermore, one could say I come from a mathematics background and I am not familiar with common terminology in philosophy…
Stefan Perko
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Should we save endangered languages?

There are over six thousand living languages in the world, of which more than one thousand are defined as "endangered" - they are at serious risk of becoming extinct, with no living speakers. Rather more surprising, it is estimated that more than…
commando
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What's the solution to Sorites paradox?

Suppose you have a heap of sand. You remove one grain. Is there still a heap? You remove another, until you get down to a heap with three grains, a heap with two grains, a heap with one grain, and finally a heap with no grains at all. But that’s…
ActualCry
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How does language alter our experience of the world?

I was thinking — if we didn't have words our experiences would be different somehow. It seems to me that perhaps words are limiting our experiences because as soon as we relate an experience to a word it becomes entrenched, explored, all the…
Daniel
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What are the implications of ordinary language philosophy on the study of langauge?

I can't see how the etymology of a word has any significance other than an historical significance. So how can we characterize this connection between the original formation of a word and its current, or derived, use? (For instance "energy" is a…
Jon
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If qualia are "something extra" to explain, isn't it weird that the brain produces speech about qualia?

This question is mainly directed at people who are firm physicalists (as opposed to dualists) but still think qualia are "something extra to be explained". I believe Searle and Chalmers both fall into this category. Chalmers writes: The easy…
Dan Butler
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Does claiming something exists imply that the number 1 exists?

The number 1 is used in language when we make claims of existence concerning distinct well-defined objects. It seems then that to say the number 1 does not exist would imply that nothing exists at all. Is this reasoning faulty? If I need a concept…
REX
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Is "Mickey Mouse" a rigid designator?

According to Kripke, proper names, like Barack Obama, Michael Jackson etc are rigid designators. In all possible worlds, the name refers to the 'object' Barack Obama or Michael Jackson. This is true for all real persons. But what about fictive…
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