Entities and Indices (Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy) pdf epub mobi txt 电子书 下载 2026

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出版者:Springer

作者:M.J. Cresswell

出品人:

页数:288

译者:

出版时间:1990-10-31

价格:USD 69.95

装帧:Paperback

isbn号码:9780792309673

丛书系列:

图书标签:

• Linguistics
• Philosophy
• Semantics
• Ontology
• Formal Logic
• Knowledge Representation
• Information Science
• Cognitive Science
• Artificial Intelligence
• Computational Linguistics

Entities and Indices: Exploring the Foundations of Meaning In the realm of linguistic theory, understanding how language carves up the world and refers to its constituents is a fundamental pursuit. "Entities and Indices" delves into this intricate relationship, examining the philosophical underpinnings of how we form concepts and how these concepts are anchored to reality through linguistic devices. This work is not a mere cataloging of words, but a rigorous investigation into the very architecture of meaning, exploring the essential components that allow us to communicate about the existence and properties of things. At its core, the book tackles the philosophical challenges inherent in identifying and categorizing entities. It probes questions such as: What makes something an "entity"? How do we distinguish one entity from another? What are the criteria for existence, and how does language reflect these criteria? Through a close examination of various philosophical traditions and linguistic frameworks, the authors illuminate the complex processes by which we arrive at stable, identifiable concepts of the world around us. This involves dissecting the nature of universals, particulars, properties, and relations, and how these abstract notions are instantiated in the concrete world we experience. A significant portion of the inquiry is dedicated to the role of indices in language. Indices, in this context, refer to linguistic elements that point to or pick out specific entities. These can range from demonstratives like "this" and "that," to personal pronouns like "I" and "you," and even to the proper names that uniquely identify individuals or objects. The book meticulously analyzes how these seemingly simple words carry immense semantic weight, acting as crucial bridges between the abstract realm of thought and the concrete world of reference. It explores the contextual dependency of indexical expressions, highlighting how their meaning is often determined by the circumstances of their utterance, including the speaker, the time, and the location. Furthermore, "Entities and Indices" engages with the philosophical implications of reference itself. How does a word or phrase come to refer to a particular entity? What are the conditions for successful reference? The authors navigate theories of reference, including descriptivism, causal theories, and direct reference theories, scrutinizing their strengths and weaknesses in explaining how language connects to the world. This exploration is vital for understanding the reliability and precision of our communication. Without a robust account of reference, the very possibility of meaningful discourse would be undermined. The book also considers the relationship between language, thought, and reality. It posits that the way we structure our language, particularly in its treatment of entities and indices, reflects and shapes our conceptualization of reality. By examining how different languages categorize the world and employ indexical devices, the authors offer insights into the diversity of human cognition and the potential for linguistic relativity. This comparative approach underscores the idea that language is not a transparent window onto reality, but rather a powerful tool that actively constructs our understanding of it. Moreover, "Entities and Indices" delves into the formal aspects of how entities and their properties are represented within linguistic structures. It investigates the grammatical mechanisms that signal the existence, individuation, and identification of entities. This includes exploring the roles of determiners, quantifiers, and number, as these grammatical features are intimately tied to our ability to count, enumerate, and distinguish entities. The interplay between syntax and semantics in the representation of the world is a key theme, demonstrating how the structure of a sentence can encode fundamental assumptions about the entities being discussed. The authors also address the dynamic

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