Thoughts and Utterances: The Pragmatics of Explicit Communication

Introduction. 1. Pragmatics and Linguistic Underdeterminacy: Saying and Meaning. The Underdeterminacy Thesis. Eternal Sentences and Effability. Metarepresentation, Relevance and Pragmatic Inference. Underdeterminacy, Truth Conditions and the Semantics/Pragmatics Distinction. Radical Underdeterminacy and the Background. Underdeterminacy of Thought? Summary. 2. The Explicit/Implicit Distinction: Semantics/Pragmatics Distinction. Grice: Saying/Implicating. Sperber and Wilson: Relevance-theoretic Distinctions. Travis and Recanati: Enriched 'What is Said'. Bach: What is Said/Impliciture/Implicature. Pragmatic Meaning: Enrichment or Implicature? Postscript: Hidden Indexicals or 'Free Enrichment? Conclusion: From Generative Semantics to Pro-active Pragmatics. 3. The Pragmatics of 'And'-Conjunction: Preserving the Truth-functionality of 'And'. A Relevance-based Pragmatics of Conjunction. The Semantic Alternatives. Cognitive Fundamentals: Causality and Explanation. Relevance Relations and Units of Processing. Processing Effort and Iconicity. Residual Issues. Conclusion: From Generalized Conversational Implicature. 4. The Pragmatics of Negation: Some Data and Some Distinctions. Semantic Ambiguity Analyses. Strong Pragmatic Analyses. 'Presupposition'-cancelling Negation and Metalinguistic Negation. The Pragmatics of 'Presupposition'-Denial. Conclusion: From Multiple Semantic Ambiguity to Univocal Semantics and Pragmatic Enrichment. 5. The Pragmatics of On-line Concept Construction: Encoded Concepts and Communicated Concepts. A Symmetrical Account of Narrowing and Broadening. Metaphor: Loose Use and Ad Hoc Concepts. Word Meaning and Concepts. Conclusion: The Long Road from Linguistically Encoded Meaning to the Thought(s) Explicitly Communicated. Appendix 1: Relevance Theory Glossary. Appendix 2: Gricean Conversational Principles. References. Index.