Abstract
Truth-value gaps have received little attention from a foundational perspective, a fact which has rightfully opened up gap theories to charges of vacuousness. This paper develops an account of the foundations of gap-like behavior which has some hope of avoiding such charges. I begin by reviewing and sharpening a powerful argument of Dummett’s to constrain the options that gap theorists have to make sense of their views. I then show that within these strictures, we can give an account of gaps by drawing on elements of a broadly Stalnakerian framework for assertion and using gaps to track an amalgamation of assertoric effects. The discussion reveals that we may need special resources in our theories of assertion to posit gaps, that gaps may be unusable in characterizing the structure of mental states, and that gaps may have heterogeneous linguistic sources that result in equally heterogeneous projective and inferential behavior.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Belnap N. D.: Conditional assertion and restricted quantification. Noûs 4(1), 1–12 (1970)
Brandom R.: Asserting. Noûs 17(4), 637–650 (1983)
Dummett, M. (1978). Truth. In Truth and other enigmas (pp. 1–24). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Fine K.: Vagueness, truth, and logic. Synthese 30(3/4), 265–300 (1975)
de Finetti, B. (1935). La Logique de la Probabilité. Actes du Congrès International de Philosophie Scientifique, IV, 1–9.
von Fintel, K. (2007). If: The biggest little word. Slides from talk at Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics.
Frege, G. (1892). On sense and reference. In P. Geach & M. Black (Eds.), Translations from the philosophical writings of Gottlob Frege. Oxford: Blackwell.
Glanzberg, M. (2003). Against truth value gaps. In J. Beall (Ed.), Liars and heaps: New essays on paradox (pp. 151–194). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Grice H. P.: Meaning. Philosophical Review 66(3), 377–388 (1957)
Horn, L. (1985). Metalinguistic negation and pragmatic ambiguity. Language, 61, 121–174.
Kripke S.: Outline of a theory of truth. The Journal of Philosophy 72(19), 690–716 (1975)
Lappin, S. (1981). Sorts, ontology, and metpahor: The semantics of sortal structure. Berlin: Walter De Gruyter.
Lewis D. K.: Scorekeeping in a language game. Journal of Philosophical Logic 8(1), 339–359 (1979)
Lewis, D. K. (1980). Index, context, and content. In S. Kanger & S. Öhman (Eds.), Philosophy and grammar (pp. 79–106). Holland: D. Reidel.
Lewis, D. K. (1994). Reduction of mind. In S. Guttenplan (Ed.), A companion to the philosophy of mind (pp. 412–431). Oxford: Blackford.
Moss, S. (forthcoming). On the semantics and pragmatics of epistemic vocabulary. Semantics and Pragmatics.
Ninan D.: Semantics and the objects of assertion. Linguistics and Philosophy 33(5), 355–380 (2010)
Priest, G. (2006). In contradiction: A study of the transconsistent. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Rabern B.: Against the identification of assertoric content with semantic value. Synthese 189(1), 75–96 (2012)
Rothschild D.: Expressing credences. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 112(1 pt. 1), 99–114 (2012)
Rothschild D.: Capturing the relationship between conditionals and conditional probability with a trivalent semantics. Journal of Applied Non-Classical Logics 24(1–2), 144–152 (2014)
Routley R.: On a significance theory. Australasian Journal of Philosophy 44(2), 172–209 (1966)
Routley R.: The need for nonsense. Australasian Journal of Philosophy 47(3), 367–384 (1969)
Ryle, G. (1949). The concept of mind. London: Hutchinson.
Shaw, J. R. (forthcoming). Anomaly and quantification. Noûs.
Soames, S. (1999). Understanding truth. New York: Oxford Univeristy Press.
Soames, S. (2003). Higher-order vagueness for partially defined predicates. In J. Beall (Ed.), Liars and heaps (pp. 128–150). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Stalnaker, R. (1978). Assertion. In Context and content (pp. 78–95). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Stalnaker R.: Inquiry. MIT Press, Cambridge (1984)
Stalnaker, R. (1999). Belief attribution and context. In Context and content (pp. 150–166). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Stalnaker R.: Common ground. Linguistics and Philosophy 25(5), 701–721 (2002)
Stanley, J. (1997). Rigidity and content. In R. G. Heck (Ed.), Language, thought, and logic: Essays in honor of Michael Dummett (pp. 131–156). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Strawson P. F.: On referring. Mind 59, 320–344 (1950)
Strawson, P. F. (1952). Introduction to logical theory. London: Methuen.
Strawson P. F.: A reply to Mr Sellars. Philosophical Review 63, 216–231 (1954)
Suszko R.: The Fregean axiom and polish mathematical logic in the 1920s. Studia Logica 36(4), 376–380 (1977)
Thomason R.: A semantic theory of sortal incorrectness. Journal of Philosophical Logic 1(2), 209–258 (1972)
Yalcin S.: Epistemic modals. Mind 116(464), 983–1026 (2007)
Yalcin, S. (2011). Nonfactualism about epistemic modality. In A. Egan & B. Weatherson (Eds.), Epistemic modality (pp. 295–332). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Yalcin, S. (forthcoming). Semantics and metasemantics in the context of generative grammar. In A. Burgess & B. Sherman (Eds.), Metasemantics: New essays on the foundations of meaning. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Shaw, J.R. What is a truth-value gap?. Linguist and Philos 37, 503–534 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10988-014-9160-x
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10988-014-9160-x