Reference and Inference

0140206 - FLU-F 20020115 RIV NL eng C - Conference Paper (international conference)
Peregrin, Jaroslav
Reference and Inference.
Reference and Anaphoric Relations. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 2000 - (von Heusinger, K.; Egli, U.), s. 269-286. ISBN 0-7923-6070-2.
[Reference and Anaphorical Relations. Konstanz (DE), 13.06.1996-15.06.1996]
R&D Projects: GA ČR GA401/99/0619
Keywords : anaphora * dynamic semantics
Subject RIV: AA - Philosophy ; Religion

The paper discusses the relationship between the concept of reference and that of inference; the point is to indicate that contrary to the usual view it may be good to see the former as "parasitic" on the latter, not the other way around. The first part presents an (unsystematic) overview of the development of logical tools which have been employed in the course of the analysis of referring expressions calling attention to the fact that current results of formal semantics demonstrate the advantages of viewing singular terms as denoting updates, i.e. as a means of changing the context (information state), and especially that part of the context which I call the individuary. The second part addresses the question whether formal semantics forces the acceptance of a representational view of language. The conclusion is that it should be answered negatively - that discourse representations, information sates, individuaries, etc. should be seen as tools internal to our accounts for singular terms' inferential capacities.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0037945