The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Philosophy of Language

The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Philosophy of Language introduces readers to the main issues and theories in the philosophy of language as currently practised. Written by leading researchers and covering the central topics in the contemporary philosophical study of language, the twenty-seven chapters provide an overview of the state of the art, and a presentation of cutting-edge developments. Topics covered include: the nature of language; the nature and role of semantic and attitudinal content; the dynamics of communication and speech acts; meta-semantics and reference grounding; tense and modality; discourse dynamics and information structure; and the expressive, evaluative, subjective, and social aspects of language. Although some of the articles focus directly on technical issues following the recent approach of linguistically oriented philosophy of language, the majority of the contributions are primarily focused on foundational questions drawn from traditional philosophy of language. The volume offers a reconsideration of these foundational issues in a new light, while still bearing in mind the formal developments in recent literature, as well as a presentation of new foundational issues that have emerged as a result of these developments.

Una Stojnic, Princeton University,Ernie Lepore, Rutgers University

Ernie Lepore is Board of Governors Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University. He has authored numerous books and papers in the philosophy of language, philosophical logic, metaphysics, and philosophy of mind, including recently Imagination and Convention (with Matthew Stone, OUP, 2015), and Liberating Content (OUP, 2016) with Herman Cappelen. He is the co-editor (with David Sosa) of Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Language.

Una Stojnic is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the Department of Philosophy, Princeton University. Prior to joining Princeton, she was Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Columbia University, a Bersoff assistant professor and faculty fellow in Philosophy at NYU, and a research fellow in Philosophy at ANU. She earned her PhD in Philosophy and a Certificate in Cognitive Science from Rutgers University in 2016.

PrefacePart I: Languages and Language1. Do Languages Really Exist?, Robert J. Stainton and Christopher Viger2. Possible Human Languages, Zoltán Gendler Szabó3. The Logicality of Language, Meaning-Driven Unacceptability, and Modulated Logic forms, Guillermo Del PinalPart II: Semantic Content and Propositional Attitudes4. Report and Content, Samuel Cumming5. A Plea for Innocence, David Sosa6. Contemporary Foundational Accounts of Propositions, Eleni Manolakaki7. Multiple Intensions Semantics, Kathrin Glüer and Peter PaginPart III: Communication and Speech Acts8. States of Conversation, Seth Yalcin9. The Distinction Between Content and Force, Peter Hanks10. Do Not Diagonalize, Cameron Domenico Kirk-GianniniPart IV: Meta-semantics and Foundations of Meaning Theory11. Reference without Deference, Herman Cappelen and Max Deutsch12. One Word, Many Concepts: Endorsing Polysemous Meanings, Paul M. Pietroski13. The Problem of Polysemy, Emma Borg14. Truth, Normativity, and Interpretational Theories of Meaning, Henry Jackman15. Semantic Non-Reductionism, Claudine Verheggen16. Foundations of Semantics, Wayne A. Davis17. Quantifier Domain Restriction and the Problem of Incomplete Quantifiers, Jeffrey C. KingPart V: Tense and Modality18. Future Displacement and Modality, Fabrizio Cariani19. The Semantics and Logic of Counterfactuals, Paolo Santorio20. Deontic Modal Expressions, J. L. DowellPart VI: Semantics and Linguistic Theory21. Indefinites: Scope and Context, John Collins22. Information Structure for Philosophers, Michael GlanzbergPart VII: Expressive, Evaluative, Subjective, and Social Aspects of Language23. Evaluativity, Isidora Stojanovic24. How Vocatives Illuminate Slurs, Robin Jeshion25. The Metatheoretic Foundation for Racial Epithets, Christopher Hom and Robert May26. Subjectivity, Malte Willer27. Linguistic Variation, Agency, and Style, Elisabeth Camp and Ethan Nowak