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Some Limitations to the Psychological Orientation in Semantic Theory

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Abstract

The psychological orientation treats semantics as a matter of idealized computation over symbolic structures, and semantic relations like denotation as relations between linguistic expressions and these structures. I argue that results similar to Gödel’s incompleteness theorems and Tarski’s theorem on truth create foundational difficulties for this view of semantics.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Philosophy Department, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109-1003, USA

    Richmond H. Thomason

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  1. Richmond H. Thomason
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Correspondence to Richmond H. Thomason.

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Notes on this manuscript. I’m not sure of the exact date, but I believe that work on this paper was begun in 1978. Versions of it were privately distributed in 1979, and in 1979 and 1980 it was presented as a talk on at least three different occasions. The draft that is reproduced here dates to 1983, with only very minor changes.

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Thomason, R.H. Some Limitations to the Psychological Orientation in Semantic Theory. J Philos Logic 40, 1–14 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10992-010-9151-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10992-010-9151-5

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