A FRESH FOUNDATION FOR THE PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE: A RENEWAL WITH ARISTOTLE AND SOMETHING NEW
Author
MAHONEY, MATTHIAS JEFFERYIssue Date
2022Advisor
Reimer, Margaret
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The University of Arizona.Rights
Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author.Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to offer a new and renewed response to the basic question: what is language? In order to accomplish this, I first take a step back, and point to the deeper reality which language itself points to and relies upon: meaning. My response is new, insofar as I offer a new picture of meaning, and how meaning is manifest beyond the phenomenon of language. However, this response is also a renewal, because I will draw from Aristotle’s own metaphysical framework and his ideas about language and put these in dialogue with findings of modern linguistics. Meaning I take to be a special type of attention drawing relationship, whereby one thing calls attention to another thing in virtue of some ordering principle. Communication is the expression of meaning. Language then, is the mode of communication proper to rational animals, that is, human beings. Understood this way, language is not only the art of reference, nor merely a societal construction, nor reducible to individual intentions: rather, language is the syntactically organized and conventionally encoded means by which humans communicate their will and intellect, genuinely reflecting reality. The final purpose of this paper is not only to provide a renewal to philosophy of language as such, but also a renewal for us: how you and I appreciate language. I wish to draw attention to the marvelous mystery of meaning, which is too often taken for granted, and the beautiful ways this mystery is brought to life in human language.Type
Electronic thesistext
Degree Name
B.A.Degree Level
bachelorsDegree Program
LinguisticsHonors College