Editorial
Published in Intercultural Pragmatics
Pragmatics and philosophy: In search of a paradigm
Published in Intercultural Pragmatics
There is no doubt that pragmatic theory and philosophy of language are mutually relevant and intrinsically connected. The main question I address in this paper is how exactly they are interconnected in terms of (i) their respective objectives, (ii) explanans – explanandum relation, (iii) methods of enquiry, and (iv) drawing on associated discipline...
Missing-link conditionals: pragmatically infelicitous or semantically defective?
Published in Intercultural Pragmatics
According to virtually all major theories of conditionals, conditionals with a true antecedent and a true consequent are true. Yet conditionals whose antecedent and consequent have nothing to do with each other—so-called missing-link conditionals—strike us as odd, regardless of the truth values of their constituent clauses. Most theorists attribute...
Cognition and recognition
Published in Intercultural Pragmatics
Expressions are synonymous if they have the same semantic content. Complex expressions are synonymously isomorphic in Alonzo Church’s sense if one is obtainable from the other by a sequence of alphabetic changes of bound variables or replacements of component expressions by syntactically simple synonyms. Synonymous isomorphism provides a very stric...
Three accounts of propositional relation reports
Published in Intercultural Pragmatics
Peter Hanks and Scott Soames have developed a theory of propositions as structured cognitive event types, as have I in earlier works. They use the theory to offer similar accounts of transparent propositional relation reports, and very different accounts of opaque reports. For both, the sentences used to report propositional attitudes or speech act...
A dialectical approach to presupposition
Published in Intercultural Pragmatics
This paper advances an approach to presupposition rooted in the concept of commitment, a dialectical notion weaker than truth and belief. It investigates ancient medieval dialectical theories and develops the insights thereof for analyzing how presuppositions are evaluated and why a proposition is presupposed. In particular, at a pragmatic level, p...
Identity, doxastic co-indexation, and Frege’s puzzle
Published in Intercultural Pragmatics
I will argue that Frege’s puzzle arises only in taking into consideration the cognizer’s viewpoint. Although this sounds trivial, it triggers some important consequences. In particular, Frege’s puzzle has nothing to do with the notion of identity. For, the puzzle rests on whether the speaker/hearer (or writer/reader) conceives the names flanking th...
Where syntax meets pragmatics: varieties of de se and control structures
Published in Intercultural Pragmatics
In this contribution, we offer an original analysis of the relation between control structures, de se readings and Immunity to Error through Misidentification. We propose that control structures are the result of an operation of Thematic Overwriting (TO), which conflates two thematic roles into one and delivers a logical representation whereby two ...
Pragmatic challenges in the communication of emotions in intercultural couples
Published in Intercultural Pragmatics
Statistical analysis of quantitative and qualitative data collected via an online questionnaire from 429 participants who were in an intercultural relationship revealed strongly divided opinions on the pragmatic challenges of communicating emotions with their partner. Though most participants reported some degree of difficulty, most agreed that lov...
A. Capone F. Kiefer F. Lo Piparo: Indirect reports and Pragmatics
Published in Intercultural Pragmatics
