Is there such a thing as felicitous underspecification

Bibliographic Data

ID21370924
AuthorsJeff Speaks (0009-0007-5677-8558, University of Notre Dame, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume181
Issue11
Pages3169-3179
Publication date2024-11-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePhilosophical Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0031-8116 • E-ISSN: 1573-0883
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s11098-024-02179-7
OpenAlexW4399746990
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited6

In Felicitous Underspecification, Jeffrey King draws our attention to a rich and underexplored collection of linguistic data. These are uses of context-sensitive expressions which seem perfectly felicitous despite being such that, on plausible assumptions, the context in which they are used falls short of securing for them a unique semantic value. This raises an immediate puzzle: if, as King argues, these uses of expressions really do lack unique semantic values in context, how can they—as they manifestly do—make contributions to the conversations in which they occur? King answers this question with a novel theory of conversational updating. Here I focus less on this theory than on King’s examples, and consider some ways of accommodating them without positing felicitous underspecification. In some cases I give some reasons for thinking that the alternative explanation is superior. But my aim is less to establish this conclusion than to suggest some new options for thinking about these examples, and hopefully by so doing to advance the conversation about the data to which King has drawn our attention

Epistemology · Linguistics · Metaphysics · Philosophy of language · Philosophy of mind · Underspecification · Legal principles and applications · Philosophy · Philosophy and Theoretical Science · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

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