The semantics of fiction

Mind and Language 38 (2):604-618 (2023)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

The paper reviews proposals by Abell, Predelli, and others on the semantics of fiction, focusing on the discourse through which fictions are created. Predelli develops the radical fictionalism of former writers like Kripke and van Inwagen, on which that discourse is contentless and does not express propositions. This paper offers reasons to doubt these claims. It then explores realist proposals like Abell’s in which singular terms in fictions refer to fictional characters, understood as socially created representational artifacts, and irrealist alternatives in which the discourse is fully meaningful even though those terms fail to refer.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,616

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Reference in Fiction.Stacie Friend - 2019 - Disputatio 11 (54):179-206.
Possible Worlds Semantics and Fiction.Diane Proudfoot - 2006 - Journal of Philosophical Logic 35:9-40.
Two-Dimensional Semantics.Manuel García-Carpintero & Josep Macià (eds.) - 2006 - New York: Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Frege, fiction and force.Jessie Munton - 2017 - Synthese 194 (9):3669-3692.
Voltolini's Ficta.Manuel García-Carpintero - 2009 - Dialectica 63 (1):57-66.
Sherlock Is Law Abiding.Dominic McIver Lopes - 2020 - Journal of Applied Logics 7 (2):171-176.
Lying and Fiction.Emar Maier - 2018 - In Jörg Meibauer (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Lying. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford Handbooks. pp. 303-314.
Introduction.Manuel Garcia-Carpintero & Macià & Josep - 2006 - In Manuel Garcia-Carpintero & Josep Macià (eds.), Two-Dimensional Semantics. Clarendon Press.
Impossible Fictions Part I: Lessons for Fiction.Daniel Nolan - 2021 - Philosophy Compass 16 (2):1-12.
Fiction-making as a Gricean illocutionary type.Manuel Garcia-Carpintero - 2007 - Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 65 (2):203–216.
The Matter of Serial Fiction.Chris Tillman - 2016 - Res Philosophica 93 (2):425-439.
Las normas Y su puesta en vigor: Respuesta a Josep Corbí.Manuel García-Carpintero - 2017 - Crítica. Revista Hispanoamericana de Filosofía 49 (145):113-132.
Quantified negative existentials.Frederick Kroon - 2003 - Dialectica 57 (2):149–164.

Analytics

Added to PP
2022-04-08

Downloads
72 (#207,685)

6 months
30 (#92,913)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Manuel García-Carpintero
Universitat de Barcelona

Citations of this work

‘Truth in Fiction’ Reprised.Manuel García-Carpintero - 2022 - British Journal of Aesthetics 62 (2):307-324.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Designation.Michael Devitt - 1981 - New York: Columbia University Press.
Nonexistence.Nathan Salmon - 1998 - Noûs 32 (3):277-319.
Fiction and Metaphysics.Amie Thomasson - 1999 - Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 60 (2):190-192.
Fearing fictions.Kendall L. Walton - 1978 - Journal of Philosophy 75 (1):5-27.

View all 55 references / Add more references