Language, Action and Thought

Peter Pagin (Stockholm University)
Conceptual change and communication
Abstract:
Communication fails when the thought expressed by the speaker is very different from the resulting thought picked up by the hearer. Some philosophers, including me, have argued that some differences are tolerable and hence compatible with communicative success. But then, how much difference is too much? I have argued that a lower boundary of success is sameness of truth value. If you expressed a true proposition and what I picked up is a false one, then, intuitively, communication failed. ...

Peter Hanks (University of Minnesota)
Acts of Address and Acts of Reference
Abstract:
Acts of address, as I will use the term, are acts in which a speaker uses a linguistic expression to get or maintain the attention of an addressee. Vocative uses of proper names are paradigm examples, e.g. "Charles, the guests have arrived" or "Camilla, where is the wine?". In this talk I will argue that acts of address are not acts of reference. In other words, when a speaker addresses someone they do not refer to the addressee. ...