Description
Book SynopsisMark Richard presents an original picture of meaning according to which a word''s meaning is analogous to the biological lineages we call species. His primary thesis is that a word''s meaning - in the sense of what one needs to track in order to be a competent speaker - is the collection of assumptions its users make in using it and expect their hearers to recognize as being made. Meaning is something that is spread across a population, inherited by each new generation of speakers from the last, and typically evolving in so far as what constitutes a meaning changes in virtue of the interactions of speakers with their (linguistic and social) environment. Meanings as Species develops and defends the analogy between the biological and the linguistic, and includes a discussion of the senses in which the processes of meaning change are and are not like evolution via natural selection. Richard argues that thinking of meanings as species supports Quine''s insights about analyticity without re
Table of ContentsIntroduction 1: Quine and the Species Problem 2: Internalism to the Rescue? 3: What Are Meanings, that We Might Share Them? 4: Conceptual Evolution 5: Meaning, Thought, and its Ascription 6: Sex and Conversation Coda Bibliography
