On the Fundamental Role of ‘Means That’ in Semantic Theorizing

GRÜNBERG T., GRÜNBERG D., AKÇELİK O.

Journal of Logic, Language and Information, cilt.32, sa.4, ss.601-656, 2023 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 32 Sayı: 4
  • Basım Tarihi: 2023
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1007/s10849-022-09393-8
  • Dergi Adı: Journal of Logic, Language and Information
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Arts and Humanities Citation Index (AHCI), Scopus, IBZ Online, Applied Science & Technology Source, Computer & Applied Sciences, INSPEC, Linguistic Bibliography, Linguistics & Language Behavior Abstracts, MLA - Modern Language Association Database, Philosopher's Index, Psycinfo, zbMATH
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.601-656
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: Analyticity, Interpretive truth theory, Meaning postulates, Meaning theory, Semantic constants, ‘means that’
  • Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

Our aim is to illuminate the interconnected notions of meaning and truth. For this purpose, we investigate the relationship between meaning theories based on commonsensical ‘means that’ and interpretive truth theories. The latter are Tarski–Davidson-style truth theories serving as meaning theories. We consider analytically true semantic principles containing ‘means’ and ‘means that’ side to side with ‘denotes’, ‘satisfies’, and ‘true’, which constitute the extensional semantic constants of interpretive truth theories. We show that these semantic constants are definable in terms of ‘means’ and ‘means that’ operators. The definitions themselves are semantic principles in the role of meaning postulates. We extend a meaning theory based on ‘means that’ by adjoining semantic principles to the axioms of the theory. Then, all axioms, hence all theorems, of a corresponding interpretive truth theory are provable in the extension of the meaning theory. Furthermore, every interpretive truth theory can be included in the extension of a corresponding meaning theory. Therefore, the extension of a meaning theory resulting from the adjunction of semantic principles constitutes a unified meaning-and-truth theory since it includes both a meaning theory and an interpretive truth theory.