Synthese

pp 1–22 | Cite as

Force cancellation

S.I.: Unity of Structured Propositions
First Online:
Received:
Accepted:

Abstract

Peter Hanks and Scott Soames both defend pragmatic solutions to the problem of the unity of the proposition. According to them, what ties together Tim and baldness in the singular proposition expressed by ‘Tim is bald’ is an act of the speaker (or thinker) : the act of predicating baldness of Tim. But Soames construes that act as force neutral and noncommittal while, for Hanks, it is inherently assertive and committal. Hanks answers the Frege–Geach challenge by arguing that, in complex sentences, the force inherent in the content of an embedded sentence is cancelled. Indrek Reiland has recently objected to Hanks’s proposal that it faces a dilemma: either force cancellation dissolves the unity of the proposition secured by the cancelled act of assertion (and Hanks’s proposal does not work), or Hanks’s proposal reduces to Soames’s. In this paper, I respond to Reiland by offering an analysis of force cancellation which gets rid of the alleged dilemma. The proposal is based on a set of distinctions from speech act theory : between two senses of ’force’, two types of act, and two types of context. The role of simulation in force cancellation is emphasized, and connections drawn to broader issues such as the evolution of complex language.

Keywords

Unity of the proposition Illocutionary force Locutionary act Polyphony Echoic uses Cancellation Frege–Geach problem Embedding Simulation Language and theory of mind 
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

Notes

Acknowledgments

The research leading to this paper has received support from the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche under Grant Agreement No. ANR-10-LABX-0087 IEC and Grant Agreement No. ANR-10-IDEX-0001-02 PSL. I am grateful to Peter Hanks, Herb Clark, Indrek Reiland, and several anonymous reviewers for discussion.

References

  1. Anscombre, J. C., & Ducrot, O. (1977). Deux mais en français? Lingua, 43, 23–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  2. Austin, J. L. (1975). How to do things with words. Oxford: Clarendon Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  3. Barker, S. (2004). Renewing meaning. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  4. Bergson, H. (1907). L’Evolution Créatrice. Paris: Alcan.Google Scholar
  5. Clark, H. (1996). Using language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  6. Clark, H. (2016). Depicting as a method of communication. Psychological Review, 123, 324–347.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  7. Clark, H., & Carlson, T. (1982). Hearers and speech acts. Language, 58, 332–373.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  8. Clark, H., & Gerrig, R. (1984). On the pretense theory of irony. Journal of Experimental Psychology : General, 113, 121–126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  9. Collins, J. (2011). The unity of linguistic meaning. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  10. Cosmides, L. & Tooby, J. (2000). Consider the source: The evolution of adaptations for decoupling and metarepresentation. In D. Sperber (Ed.), pp. 53–115.Google Scholar
  11. Davies, M., & Stone, T. (Eds.). (1995). Mental simulation. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
  12. De Brabanter, P. (Ed.) (2005). Hybrid quotation. Amsterdam: John Benjamins (=Belgian Journal of Linguistics 17, 2003).Google Scholar
  13. de Cornulier, B. (1985). Effets de sens. Paris: Editions de Minuit.Google Scholar
  14. De Villiers, J. (2005). Can language acquisition give children a point of view? In J. Astington & J. Baird (Eds.), Why language matters for theory of mind (pp. 186–219). New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  15. De Villiers, J. (2007). The interface between language and theory of mind. Lingua, 117, 1858–1878.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  16. Doron, E. (1991). Point of view as a factor of content. In S. Moore & A. Wynner (Eds.), Proceedings of the first semantics and linguistic theory conference (SALT 1) (pp. 51–64). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
  17. Ducrot, O. (1972). Dire et ne pas dire. Paris: Hermann.Google Scholar
  18. Ducrot, O. (1973). La preuve et le dire: Langage et logique. Paris: Mame.Google Scholar
  19. Ducrot, O. (1980a). Analyses pragmatiques. Communications, 32, 11–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  20. Ducrot, O. (1980b). Analyse de texte et linguistique de l’énonciation. In O. Ducrot, et al. (Eds.), Les Mots du discours (pp. 7–56). Paris: Editions de Minuit.Google Scholar
  21. Ducrot, O. (1984). Esquisse d’une théorie polyphonique de l’énonciation. In O. Ducrot (Ed.), Le dire et le dit (pp. 171–233). Paris: Editions de Minuit.Google Scholar
  22. Ducrot, O. (1986). Charles Bally et la pragmatique. Cahiers Ferdinand de Saussure, 40, 13–37.Google Scholar
  23. Dummett, M. (1973). Frege : Philosophy of language. London: Duckworth.Google Scholar
  24. Eckhart, R. (2015). The semantics of free indirect discourse. How texts allow us to mind-read and eavesdrop. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
  25. Fauconnier, G. (1985). Mental spaces. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press/Bradford Books.Google Scholar
  26. Fodor, J. (1983). The modularity of mind. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
  27. Frege, G. (1918–1926) Logical investigations. Eng. trans. in B. McGuinness (Ed.) Collected papers on mathematics, logic, and philosophy, pp. 351–406. Oxford: Blackwell, 1984.Google Scholar
  28. Gaskin, R. (2008). The unity of the proposition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  29. Geach, P. (1960). Ascriptivism. Reprinted in Geach, 1972, 250–254.Google Scholar
  30. Geach, P. (1965). Assertion. Reprinted in Geach, 1972, 254–269.Google Scholar
  31. Geach, P. (1971). Mental acts (2nd ed.). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
  32. Geach, P. (1972). Logic matters. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
  33. Gibson, M. (2004). From naming to saying: the unity of the proposition. Oxford: Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  34. Grice, H. P. (1989). Studies in the way of words. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
  35. Hanks, P. (2007). The content-force distinction. Philosophical Studies, 134, 141–164.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  36. Hanks, P. (2011). Structured propositions as types. Mind, 120, 11–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  37. Hanks, P. (2015). Propositional content. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  38. Hare, R.M. (1950). Practical reason. Unpublished dissertation, University of Oxford.Google Scholar
  39. Hare, R. M. (1970). Meaning and speech acts. Reprinted in Hare, 1971, 74–93.Google Scholar
  40. Hare, R. M. (1971). Practical inferences. London: MacMillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  41. Hom, C., & Schwartz, J. (2013). Unity and the Frege–Geach problem. Philosophical Studies, 163, 15–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  42. Husserl, E. (1900–1901). Logische Untersuchungen. Halle: Newmeyer.Google Scholar
  43. Jary, M., & Kissine, M. (2014). Imperatives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  44. King, J. (2007). The nature and structure of content. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  45. King, J., Soames, S., & Speaks, J. (2014). New thinking about propositions. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  46. Leslie, A. (1987). Pretense and representation: The origins of “theory of mind”. Psychological Review, 94, 412–426.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  47. Meinong, A. (1902). Ueber Annahmen. Leipzig: Barth.Google Scholar
  48. Mulligan, K. (2015). Annehmen, phantasieren und entertaining. Husserl and Meinong. In S. Lapointe (Ed.) Themes from ontology, mind, and logic. Essays in Honour of Peter Simons, 245–283. Leiden: Brill/Rodopi.Google Scholar
  49. Quine, Wv O. (1960). Word and object. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
  50. Recanati, F. (1980). Explicit performatives, speech acts, locutionary meaning and truth-value. In M. Bierwisch, F. Kiefer, & J. Searle (Eds.), Speech act theory and pragmatics (pp. 205–220). Dordrecht: Reidel.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  51. Recanati, F. (1987). Meaning and force. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (Eng. trans. of Les Enoncés Performatifs, Paris: Minuit, 1981).Google Scholar
  52. Recanati, F. (2000). Oratio obliqua, oratio recta. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press/Bradford Books.Google Scholar
  53. Recanati, F. (2004). Literal meaning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
  54. Recanati, F. (2007). Indexicality, context, and pretense: A speech-act theoretic account. In N. Burton-Roberts (Ed.), Pragmatics (pp. 213–229). London: Palgrave-Macmillan.Google Scholar
  55. Recanati, F. (2010). Truth-conditional pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  56. Recanati, F. (2013). Content, mood, and force. Philosophy Compass, 8, 622–632.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  57. Reiland, I. (2013). Propositional attitudes and mental acts. Thought, 1, 239–245.Google Scholar
  58. Reichenbach, H. (1947). Elements of symbolic logic. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
  59. Reinach, A. (1911). Zur Theorie des Negativen Urteils. In A. Pfänder (Ed.) Festschrift für Theodor Lipps, pp. 196–254. Leipzig: J. A. Barth. Translated in B. Smith (Ed.) (1982), pp. 315–377.Google Scholar
  60. Roberts, C. (forthcoming) Speech acts in discourse contexts. In D. Fogal, D. Harris & M. Moss (Eds.) New work on speech acts. New York: Oxford University Press (to appear).Google Scholar
  61. Russell, B. (1903). Principles of mathematics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
  62. Schlenker, P. (2004). Context of thought and context of utterance: A note on free indirect speech and the historical present. Mind and Language, 19, 279–304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  63. Searle, J. (1968). Austin on locutionary and illocutionary acts. Philosophical Review, 77, 405–424.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  64. Searle, J. (1969). Speech acts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  65. Sharvit, Y. (2008). The puzzle of free indirect discourse. Linguistics and Philosophy, 31, 353–395.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  66. Sigwart, C. (1904). Logik (3rd ed.). Tübingen: Mohr.Google Scholar
  67. Smith, B. (Ed.). (1982). Parts and moments. Studies in logic and formal ontology. Munich: Philosophia Verlag.Google Scholar
  68. Smith, B. (1994). Austrian philosophy: The legacy of Franz Brentano. Chicago: Open Court.Google Scholar
  69. Soames, S. (2010). What is meaning?. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  70. Soames, S. (2014a) Cognitive Propositions. In King, J., Soames, S. and Speaks, 91-124.Google Scholar
  71. Soames, S. (2014b) Clarifying and Improving the Cognitive Theory. In King, J., Soames, S. and Speaks, 226-44.Google Scholar
  72. Soames, S. (2015). Rethinking language, mind, and meaning. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  73. Sperber, D. (2000). Metarepresentation in an evolutionary perspective. In D. Sperber (Ed.) Metarepresentations: A multidisciplinary perspective, pp. 117–137. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
  74. Sperber, D., & Wilson, D. (1981). Irony and the use/mention distinction. In P. Cole (Ed.), Radical pragmatics (pp. 295–318). London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
  75. Sperber, D., & Wilson, D. (1986). Relevance. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
  76. Stegovek, A., & Kaufmann, M. (2015). Slovenian Imperatives : You can’t always embed what you want. Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung, 19, 620–637.Google Scholar
  77. Stokke, A. (2013). Protagonist projection. Mind and Language, 28, 204–232.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  78. Walton, K. (1990). Mimesis as make-believe. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
  79. Whiten, A., & Byrne, R. (1997). Machiavellian intelligence II : Extensions and evaluations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  80. Wilson, D. (2000) Metarepresentation in linguistic communication. In D. Sperber (ed.), 441-48.Google Scholar
  81. Wilson, D. (2006). The pragmatics of verbal irony: Echo or pretence? Lingua, 116, 1722–1743.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  82. Wilson, D., & Sperber, D. (1992). On verbal irony. Lingua, 87, 53–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  83. Wilson, D., & Sperber, D. (2012). Meaning and relevance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2016

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Institut Jean NicodEcole Normale SupérieureParisFrance

Personalised recommendations