A Philosophical Perspective

Question 1

Strawson’s Dichotomy

Answer 1

Some people (the formal semanticists) think that meaning is something that sentences have, while others (the communication-intention-ists) think that meaning is something that people do

Question 2

Theorists of formal semantics

Answer 2

Frege, Chomsky, Wittgenstein (early); linguistic structure should be studied on its own terms, without necessary reference to its use

Question 3

Theorists of communication-intention

Answer 3

Grice, Austin, Wittgenstein (later); language use as interactions with other individuals in which we move around sets of linguistic counters;

Question 4

Theory of mind problem and the complexity of communication

Answer 4

In order to build computer models you need less flexible “rules” that are not so complicated to replicate