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1 - Two approaches to ‘what is said’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 January 2010

François Recanati
Affiliation:
Institut Jean-Nicod, Paris
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Summary

The basic triad

Anyone who has reflected on the sentence meaning/speaker's meaning distinction knows that a simple distinction is in fact insufficient. Two equally important distinctions must be made. First, there is the distinction between the linguistic meaning of a sentence-type, and what is said (the proposition expressed) by an utterance of the sentence. For example, the English sentence ‘I am French’ has a certain meaning which, qua meaning of a sentence-type, is not affected by changes in the context of utterance. This context-independent meaning contrasts with the context-dependent propositions which the sentence expresses with respect to particular contexts. Thus ‘I am French’, said by me, expresses the proposition that I am French; if you utter the sentence, it expresses a different proposition, even though its linguistic meaning remains the same across contexts of use.

Second, there is a no less important distinction between what is actually said and what is merely ‘conveyed’ by the utterance. My utterance of ‘I am French’ expresses the proposition that I am French, but there are contexts in which it conveys much more. Suppose that, having been asked whether I can cook, I reply: ‘I am French.’ Clearly my utterance (in this context) provides an affirmative answer to the question. The meaning of the utterance in such a case includes more than what is literally said; it also includes what the utterance ‘implicates’.

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Literal Meaning , pp. 5 - 22
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2003

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