Some Thoughts on the Formal Approach to the Philosophy of Language

Abstract

Reprinted, slightly revised, from y. bar-hillel, ed., "pragmatics of natural languages", dordrecht-holland 1971. offers critique of j. katz on logical empiricism and discussion of relevance of work with formal languages to the study of natural language. three developments in model-theoretic semantics are presented informally: a conception of 'meanings' as functions from possible worlds to appropriate extensions; a treatment of 'pragmatic languages'; the study of non-bivalent formal languages, appropriate for the semantic study of presupposition and linguistic deviance.