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What is Language? Some Preliminary Remarks
Searle, John R.
2009
Abstract
There are three essential I want to get across in this article in addition to the analysis of
relations of nonlinguistic to linguistic intentionality. First I want to emphasize how the
structure of prelinguistic intentionality enables us to solve the problems of the relation of
reference and predication and the problem of the unity of the proposition. The second point
is about deontology. The basic intellectual motivation that drives this second part of his
argument is the following: there is something left out of the standard textbook accounts of
language as consisting of syntax, semantics and phonology with an extra-linguistic
pragmatics thrown in. Basically what is left out is the essential element of commitment
involved in having a set of conventional devices that encode the imposition of conditions of
satisfaction on conditions of satisfaction. The third part of the article is about the creation
of a social and institutional ontology by linguistically representing certain facts as existing,
thus creating the facts. When we understand this third point we will get a deeper insight
into the constitutive role of language in the construction of society and social institutions.
Series
Etica & Politica / Ethics & Politics
XI (2009) 1
Publisher
EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste
Source
John R. Searle, "What is Language? Some Preliminary Remarks", in: Etica & Politica / Ethics & Politics, XI (2009) 1, pp. 173-202.
Languages
en
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