On the Representation of Context
Tóm tắt
This paper revisits some foundational questions concerning the abstract representation of a discourse context. The context of a conversation is represented by a body of information that is presumed to be shared by the participants in the conversation – the information that the speaker presupposes a point at which a speech act is interpreted. This notion is designed to represent both the information on which context-dependent speech acts depend, and the situation that speech acts are designed to affect, and so to be a representation of context that is appropriate for explaining the interaction of context and the contents expressed in them. After reviewing the motivating ideas and the outlines of the apparatus, the paper responds to a criticism of the framework, and considers the way it can help to clarify some phenomena concerning pronouns with indefinite antecedents.
Tài liệu tham khảo
Barwise, J. and Perry, J., 1983, Situations and Attitudes, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Grice, P., 1989, Studies in the Way of Words, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Kamp, H. and Reyle, U., 1993, From Discourse to Logic, Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Kaplan, D., 1989, “Demonstratives,” pp. 481–563 in Themes from Kaplan, J. Almog, J. Perry, and H. Wettstein, eds., Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Montague, R., 1974, “Pragmatics,” pp. 95–118, in Formal Philosophy, R. Montague, ed., New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Stalnaker, R., 1978. “Assertion,” Syntax and Semantics 9, 315–322.
Strawson, P.F., 1952, Introduction to Logical Theory, London: Methuen.