Semantics, Cross-Category Style

Bibliographic Data

ID21293576
AuthorsJeske Toorman (0000-0001-5700-8335, NTNU Trondheim), Jussi Haukioja (0000-0002-3906-8278, NTNU Trondheim)
Year2025
Pages1-19
Publication date2025-07-07
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAustralasian Journal of Philosophy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0004-8402 • E-ISSN: 1470-6828
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00048402.2025.2521735
OpenAlexW4412100523
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited18

Ever since Machery and co-workers first decided to test whether non-philosophers assign reference in accordance with the causal-historical account, the reference of proper names has been tested by means of setups modelled on Kripke’s Gödel and Jonah cases. Over the years, the use of these setups as a means to test theories of reference has attracted much criticism. However, previous follow-up studies have supposedly accounted for these criticisms, for the most part without changing the original outcome. We conducted experiments suggesting that participants’ responses in these setups never tracked what they are supposed to track. In our study, we tested the setup itself by using analogues of different setups modelled on Kripke’s Gödel and Jonah cases. Instead of proper names, our analogues featured terms for which we have independent reason to believe that the causal-historical account is not true. The analogues elicited large proportions of supposed causal-historical responses

Art · Linguistics · Literature · Programming language · Semantics (computer science) · Style (visual arts) · Computer Science · Language and cultural evolution · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition · Philosophy · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

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