Unarticulated Constituents, Variadic Functions and Relativism

In this paper I investigate certain issues that have surfaced in the debate between truth-conditional semantics and truth-conditional pragmatics about meteorological sentences like "It is raining". First, I assess two criteria for unarticulatedness pertaining to the views (the Binding Criterion and the Optionality Criterion) and argue that both fail. Then I present one of the most powerful arguments against truth-conditional pragmatics: the so-called "Binding Argument". I show how the solution offered by Francois Recanati, consisting in appeal to "variadic functions", deflects the argument and that it can be adopted by a relativist abut locations too. In the end of a the paper I suggest, with focus on predicates of personal taste, that relativists about other kinds of expressions can adopt Recanati's solution to block versions of the Binding Argument directed at their view.