Expressions and their representations

Philosophical Quarterly 49 (195):145–163 (1999)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

It is plausible to think that our knowledge of linguistic types can bejustified by what we know about the tokens of these types. But one then hasto explain what it is about the relation a type bears to its tokens that makespossible the move from knowledge of the concrete to knowledge of theabstract. I argue that the standard solution to this difficulty, that the relevant relation is instantiation and that the transition is inductive generalization, is inadequate. I propose an alternative, according to which tokens are representations of the type they belong to. I also defend this view against the charge that it cannot account for the systematic ambiguity of expressions like ‘word’ or ‘sentence’, and the objection that it leads to an implausible form of Platonism

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,593

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

Structure and conventions. [REVIEW]Zoltán Gendler Szabó - 2008 - Philosophical Studies 137 (3):399 - 408.
Towards a semantics for mass expressions derived from gradable expressions.David Nicolas - 2010 - Recherches Linguistiques de Vincennes 39:163-198.
Psychophysical studies of expressions of pain.Temre N. Davies & Donald D. Hoffman - 2002 - Behavioral and Brain Sciences 25 (4):458-459.
Explaining expressions of emotion.Peter Goldie - 2000 - Mind 109 (433):25-38.

Analytics

Added to PP
2009-01-28

Downloads
99 (#161,403)

6 months
1 (#1,040,386)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Zoltan Szabo
Yale University

Citations of this work

Rules of Use.Indrek Reiland - 2023 - Mind and Language 38 (2):566-583.
A Bundle Theory of Words.J. T. M. Miller - 2021 - Synthese 198 (6):5731–5748.
Social Ontology.Brian Epstein - 2018 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Words, Species, and Kinds.J. T. M. Miller - 2021 - Metaphysics 4 (1):18–31.

View all 18 citations / Add more citations

References found in this work

Inquiries Into Truth And Interpretation.Donald Davidson - 1984 - Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press.
Words.David Kaplan - 1990 - Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 64 (1):93-119.
Token resistance.Peter M. Simons - 1982 - Analysis 42 (4):195.
Quotation.Jonathan Bennett - 1988 - Noûs 22 (3):399-418.

View all 13 references / Add more references