The Metaphysics of Puns

Synthese (5):1-17 (2024)
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Abstract

In this paper, I aim to discuss what puns, metaphysically, are. I argue that the type-token view of words leads to an indeterminacy problem when we consider puns. I then outline an alternative account of puns, based on recent nominalist views of words, that does not suffer from this indeterminacy.

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10.1007/s11229-024-04583-2

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James (J.T.M.) Miller
Durham University

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References found in this work

A Materialist Metaphysics of the Human Person.Hud Hudson - 2001 - Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.
A Theory of Metaphysical Indeterminacy.Elizabeth Barnes & J. Robert G. Williams - 2011 - In Karen Bennett & Dean W. Zimmerman (eds.), Oxford Studies in Metaphysics: Volume 6. Oxford University Press UK. pp. 103-148.
Words.David Kaplan - 1990 - Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 64 (1):93-119.
Language and Other Abstract Objects.Jerrold J. Katz - 1980 - Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

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