It is a reasoned inquiry into the origins of language Its nature of meaning The usage and cognition of language The relationship between language and reality To clarify concepts with which language is described and analysed To settle and resolve philosophical disputes originating from linguistic confusion

1. Philosophy of
LANGUAGE
Philosophy Tutorial Presentation

2. ➔ Language is a system of particular,symbols or signs used by social animals to
communicate.
➔ It can be used to convey information,personal expression and aesthetic
expression or emotional release.
➔ According to english phonetician and language scolar Henry Sweet : “Language
is the expression of ideas by means of speech-sounds combined into words. Words
are combined into sentences, this combination answering to that of ideas into
thoughts.”
What is LANGUAGE ?

3. ➔ It is a reasoned inquiry into the origins of language
➔ Its nature of meaning
➔ The usage and cognition of language
➔ The relationship between language and reality
➔ To clarify concepts with which language is described and analysed
➔ To settle and resolve philosophical disputes originating from linguistic
confusion
What is Philosophy of
Language?

4. ➔ Our concepts or thought are tied to language
➔ Language using behaviour
➔ Linguistics, the science of language offers philosophers much material for
philosophical reflection
Importance

5. 1. Syntax - Relations among or between signs in formal structures. Syntax is the
set of rules, principles, and processes that govern the structure of sentences
in a given language. The term syntax is also used to refer to the study of such
principles and processes.
2. Semantics - it is the study of meaning. It focuses on the relation between
signifiers, like words, phrases, signs, and symbols, and what they stand for;
their denotation.
3. Pragmatics -it is the relation between signs and sign-using agents or
interpreters and studies the ways in which context contributes to meaning.
4. Semiotics- The process of learning what signs mean.
Approaches Used

6. ➔ Vagueness
◆ One issue that has bothered philosophers of language and logic is the
problem of the vagueness of words.
◆ Often, meanings expressed by the speaker are not as explicit or precise
as the listener would like them to be. In consequence, vagueness gives
rise to the Paradox of the heap.
◆ The Paradox of the Heap goes as follows: consider a heap of sand from
which grains are individually removed. One might construct the
argument, using premises, as follows:
◆ 1,000,000 grains of sand is a heap of sand (Premise 1) A heap of sand
minus one grain is still a heap. (Premise 2
Problems with
Philosophy of Language

7. ➔ Problem of universals and composition
◆ One debate that has captured the interest of many philosophers is the
debate over the meaning of universals.
◆ One might ask, for example, "When people say the word rocks, what is it
that the word represents?" Two different answers have emerged to this
question. Some have said that the expression stands for some real,
abstract universal called "rocks". Others have said that the word stands
for some collection of particular, individual rocks that we happen to put
into a common category. The former position is associated with
philosophical realism, and the latter antirealism.
cont….

8. ➔ The nature of language
◆ Many philosophical discussions of language begin by clarifying
terminology.
◆ One item which has undergone significant scrutiny is the idea of
language itself. Those philosophers who have set themselves to the task
ask two important questions: "What is language in general?", and "What
is a particular, individual language?".
➔ Another of the questions that has divided philosophers of language is the
extent to which formal logic can be used as an effective tool in the analysis
and understanding of natural languages.
➔ While most philosophers, including Frege and Carnap, have been more or less
skeptical about formalizing natural languages, many of them developed
formal languages for use in the sciences or formalized parts of natural
language for investigation.
cont...

9. ➔ Translation and Interpretation
◆ Translation and interpretation are two other problems that philosophers
of language have attempted to confront.
◆ In the 1950s, W.V. Quine argued for the relation of meaning and
reference based on the principle of radical translation. In Word and
Object, Quine asks the reader to imagine a situation in which he is
confronted with a previously undocumented, primitive tribe and must
attempt to make sense of the utterances and gestures that its members
make. This is the situation of radical translation.
cont...

10. ➔ A diversity of views exists among philosophers regarding the nature of
conceptual and linguistic analysis
◆ Clarifying the meaning of specific words or phrase
◆ Determining the general conditions for any linguistic utterance to be
meaningful
◆ Creating format
◆ Symbolic languages that are mathematical in nature
Key Philosophies

11. ➔ Foundationalism is any theory in epistemology (typically, theories of
justification, but also of knowledge) that holds that beliefs are justified
(known, etc.) based on basic beliefs (also commonly called foundational
beliefs).
➔ A close study of the syntax and semantics of natural language suggests that
constructions of the form ‘the F’ and ‘an F’ are not only rare in natural
languages, but potentially misleading in languages like English. These
expressions really don’t carry out the logical roles that Russell and subsequent
authors have thought. However, Russell’s core insight remains intact: The
critical question is whether the sentences in which they appear are
quantificational or referential, and Russell may well be right about the critical
cases here. That is, many apparently referential constructions may in fact be
quantificational. What Russell didn’t see was that surface grammar is more
deceptive than even he realized. Elements like ‘the’ and ‘a’ do not directly
encode quantifiers or uniqueness clauses. The task for philosophers of
language now is the thorny task of figuring out what information they do
encode.

12. ● The Foundations of Arithmetic. by Gottlob Frege - 1884
● Naming and Necessity. by Saul A Kripke - 1980
● Themes from Kaplan. by Joseph Almog, John Perry and Howard Wettstein-
1989
● Syntactic Structures. by Noam Chomsky - 1957
● Frege's Puzzle. by Nathan Salmon-1986
● Philosophy of Language: The Classics Explained, by Colin McGinn-2015
● Philosophy of Language, by Scott Soames-2010
● The Philosophy of Language (6th Edition), by A. P. Martinich & David Sosa -
UN
● Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, by Ludwig Wittgenstein -1921
● Philosophical Investigations, by Ludwig Wittgenstein -1953
Bibliography

13. THANK
YOU !!!
Utkarsh Verma (IDD)
20134028
Mechanical Eng(BC)