Abstract
I show that in the context of proof-theoretic semantics, Dummett’s distinction between the assertoric meaning of a sentence (it’s meaning when viewed as “stand alone”) and its ingredient sense (its meaning when viewed as a constituent of an embedding sentence) can be seen as a distinction between two proof-theoretic meanings of a sentence:
-
1.
Meaning as a conclusion of an introduction rule in a meaning-conferring natural-deduction proof system.
-
2.
Meaning as a premise of an introduction rule in a meaning-conferring natural-deduction proof system.
The effect of this distinction on compositionality of proof-theoretic meaning is discussed.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Dummett, M.: The Logical Basis of Metaphysics. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (1993) (paperback). Hard copy 1991
Dummett, M.: The Nature and Future of Philosophy. Columbia University Press, New York (2010)
Fjellstad, A.: How a semantics for tonk should be. Rev. Symb. Log. (2015). doi:10.1017/S1755020314000513
Francez, N.: Views of proof-theoretic semantics: reified proof-theoretic meanings. J. Comput. Log. (2014). doi:10.1093/logcom/exu035. Special issue in honour of Roy Dyckhoff
Francez, N.: On the notion of canonical derivations from open assumptions and its role in proof-theoretic semantics. Rev. Symb. Log. (2015) (to appear)
Francez N., Ben-Avi G.: Proof-theoretic semantic values for logical operators. Rev Symb. Log. 4(3), 337–485 (2011)
Francez N., Dyckhoff R.: Proof-theoretic semantics for a natural language fragment. Linguist. Philos. 33(6), 447–477 (2010)
Francez N., Dyckhoff R., Ben-Avi G.: Proof-theoretic semantics for subsentential phrases. Stud. Log. 94, 381–401 (2010)
Humberstone, L.: Heterogeneous logic. Erkenntnis 29, 395–435 (1988)
Prior, A.N.: The runabout inference-ticket. Analysis 21, 38–39 (1960)
Raibern, B.: Against the identification of assertoric content with compositional value. Synthese 189(1), 75–96 (2012). doi:10.1007/s11229-012-0096-9
Schroeder-Heister, P.: Proof-theoretic semantics. In: Zalta, E.N. (ed.) Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy (SEP), http://plato.stanford.edu/. The Metaphysics Research Lab, Center for the Study of Language and Information. Stanford University, Stanford (2011)
Tsohatzidis, S.L.: The distance between ’here’ and ’where I am’. J. Philos. Res. (2013) (forthcoming)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Francez, N. On a Distinction of Two Facets of Meaning and its Role in Proof-theoretic Semantics. Log. Univers. 9, 121–127 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11787-015-0118-8
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11787-015-0118-8