The Orthodox Perspective: A Problem of Linguistic Creativity

Abstract

The Root of the Problem: Initial Reasoning and Arithmetical Analogy - How come speakers can understand any of indefinitely many sentences they have never encountered before? As a question about knowledge of meaning, this becomes: How is it that speakers can get to know the meaning of any of indefinitely many sentences they haven’t ever come across before? The former question poses what is generally called the ‘problem of linguistic creativity’. The latter pinpoints the part of it philosophers tend to focus their attention on, which might be dubbed the ‘problem of semantic creativity’.