THE PHILOSOPHIES OF

LANGUAGE
AN ORAL REPORT
BY
MARISSA T. ACUÑA
M.A. IN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE INSTRUCTION
FIRST SEMESTER, SCHOOL YEAR 2019-2020
PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE IS
CONCERNED WITH FOUR CENTRAL
PROBLEMS:
*Nature of meaning
*Language use
*Language cognition
*Relationship between language
and reality
Nature of to explain what it
meaning means to "mean"
something
nature of synonymy, the origins of
meaning itself, and how any meaning can
ever really be known
the manner in which sentences are composed
into a meaningful whole out of their
meaningful parts;
how or if the meanings of such
complexes are derived from the
meanings of parts thereof.
Languageto better understand what
use speakers and listeners do
with language in
communication, and how it
is interests
Specific used socially
may include
the topics of
language language speech
learning creation acts
 to know how language
Language relates to the minds
cognitio of both the speaker
n and the interpreter

interest is in the grounds for

successful translation of words
into other words.
Relationship between
language andhowreality
language and
meaning relate to
truth and the world.
more a meaningless
concerned sentence can be
with what true or false
kinds of sentences can express
meanings can propositions about
a sentence be things that do not
true or exist, rather than the
way sentences are used.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE TENDS TO BE DEALT WITH NOT AS A SEPARATE
TOPIC, BUT AS A PART OF LOGIC OR OTHER AREAS OF THOUGHT SUCH AS:

critical theory semiotics Heideggerean ontology

phenomenology deconstruction existentialism
hermeneutics structuralism

formed by history and politics, or even by historical philosophy itself.

related to Greek sense as "Logos", means discourse or dialectic.

 LOCKE AND THEORY OF LANGUAGE

• vocal noise
• a person mustbe “able to use sounds as signs of
internal conceptions, and
• to make them stand for the ideas within his own
mind, so that they might be made known to others,
and
• thethoughts of men’s minds be conveyed from one
another.”
• This is the basis of language and communication.
 Key ideas are in the mind of the
speaker, much like a blackboard
Mind starts out as a clean slate free from all
ideas, no innate ideas, but rather the mind
picks up as primarily through sensory
experience.
The basic ideas gained from sensory experience
are applied to the internal workings of the mind
itself,
and then are changed,
compounded and
developed into the more abstract ideas that is
FREGE ON SENSE AND REFERENCE

The distinction between sense and

reference is
 a singular term that may have meaning.
The reference of a proper name is the
object it means or indicates,
 its sense is what the name expresses.
The reference of a sentence is its truth
value,
its sense is the thought that it expresses
 Sense is something possessed by
a name, whether or not it has a
reference.

For example,
the name "Odysseus" is intelligible,
and therefore has a sense, even
though there is no individual object
(its reference) to which the name
corresponds.
The sense of different names is
different, even when their reference is
the same.
If an identity statement such as "Hesperus is
the same planet as Phosphorus" is to be
informative, the proper names flanking the
identity sign must have a different meaning or
sense.
But if the statement is true, they must have
the same reference.
The sense is a 'mode of presentation', which
serves to illuminate only a single aspect of
 RUSSELL’S DEFINITE DESCRIPTION

Puzzles in the philosophy of language

• Proper nouns are going to be considered
names,
• Phrases, usually which start with the
word the’ may be considered definite
descriptions.
• A definite description is
a denoting phrase in the form of "the X"
where X is a noun-phrase or a singular
common noun.

• The definite description is proper if X

applies to a unique individual or object.
• For example:
• "the first person in space" and "the
10th President of the Philippines", are
proper.
• The definite descriptions "the person in
space" and "the Senator from
Luzon"are improper
• because the noun phrase X applies to
more than one thing, and
• the definite descriptions "the first man
• Definite descriptions seemed to behave like
names, they actually too a much different
logical form.

•a is ‘the X’ was equivalent to all objects

b, if b has property X, then b is
identical to a. Or property (Ab)
(Xb)>(a=b).
• For example:
• Meriam is the smartest would mean that for
all people,
 AUSTIN ON SPEECH ACTS

• Thespeech act theory considers language as a sort

of action rather than a medium to convey and
express.
• Often used in the field of philosophy of languages
• Austin came up with the findings that people not
only uses language to assert things but also to
do things.
• There are two kinds of utterances:
•constative utterances and
•performative utterances.
 •A constative utterance is something
which describes or denotes the
situation, in relation with the fact
of true or false.
Have you
• Example: stolen the
“mmmmmm” candy?
.
• Theperformative utterances is
something which do not describes
anything at all.
• Theutterances in the sentences or in
the part of sentences are normally
considered as having a meaning of its
own.
• Thefeelings, attitudes, emotions and
thoughts of the person performing
 “I will”.

Sarah expresses her

feelings, attitudes and
emotional towards the
context.
 THREE DIFFERENT CATEGORIES OF
LINGUISTIC ACT;
Locutionary Illocutionar Perlocutionary
act y act act
an act of saying creates a sense
the act of
something or as an of consequential
saying
act of opposed to effects on the
something. It
saying something audiences may be
has a meaning
with a certain in the form of
and it creates
force of it; with thoughts,
an
certain tones, imaginations,
understandable
attitudes, feelings or
utterly to
feelings, or emotions.
convey or
emotions. It is
express
often used as a
GRICE ON MEANING
• Grice contends sentence and word meaning
can be analyzed in terms of what speakers
(utterers) mean.

• Utterers’ meaning can be analyzed without

semantic remainder in terms of utterers
having certain intentions.
“Meaning,”

“Why is she doing that? Oh, she

must intend me to believe that
my lights are not on. If she has
that intention, it must be that
my lights are not on. So, they
are not.”
• To summarize:
• The driver flashes her lights
intending
• that you believe that your lights
are not on;
• that you recognize her intention ;
• that this recognition be part of
your reason for believing that
THANK YOU