Grammar constrains acts of predication

Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy (2021)
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Abstract

Båve has argued that act-type theories of propositions entail unwanted ambiguity of sentences such as ‘Donald loves Joan’. King has argued that act-type theories of propositions entail an unwanted abundance of propositions. I reply that a version of the act-type theory can avoid these objections. The key idea is that grammar constrains the acts that can be performed by the utterance of a sentence. I present enough of the details of this version of the act-type theory to show how it can be used to respond to Båve's and King's objections. I conclude that this is a promising way to develop the act-type theory of propositions.

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Citations of this work

Act‐type theories of propositions.Thomas Hodgson - 2021 - Philosophy Compass 16 (11).
Syntax, Truth, and the Fate of Sentences.John Collins - 2023 - Philosophical Quarterly 74 (1):125-144.

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References found in this work

Semantics in generative grammar.Irene Heim & Angelika Kratzer - 1998 - Malden, MA: Blackwell. Edited by Angelika Kratzer.
Propositional Content.Peter Hanks - 2015 - Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.
The nature and structure of content.Jeffrey C. King - 2007 - New York: Oxford University Press.
New Thinking About Propositions.Jeffrey C. King, Scott Soames & Jeff Speaks - 2014 - New York, NY, USA: Oxford University Press. Edited by Scott Soames & Jeffrey Speaks.

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