Conventions and Their Role in Language |
| |
Authors: | M. J. Cain |
| |
Affiliation: | 1. Department of History, Religion and Philosophy, Oxford Brookes University, Harcourt Hill Campus, OX2 9AT, Oxford, UK
|
| |
Abstract: | Two of the most fundamental questions about language are these: what are languages?; and, what is it to know a given language? Many philosophers who have reflected on these questions have presented answers that attribute a central role to conventions. In one of its boldest forms such a view runs as follows. Languages are either social entities constituted by networks of social conventions or abstract objects where when a particular community speaks a given language they do so in virtue of the conventions operative within that community. Consequently, for an individual to know a given language is for them to be party to the relevant conventions. Call this view conventionalism. In this article my aim is to evaluate conventionalism. I will argue that although there are linguistic conventions and that they do play an important role in language development and communication conventionalism should be rejected in favour of a more psychologistically orientated position. |
| |
Keywords: | |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|