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    Dynamic semantics reverses the explanatory priorities of ... — Carmelics
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    Dynamic semantics reverses the explanatory priorities of classical static semantic theories

    Philosophy of Language
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    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

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    • 1.Static semantic theories primarily aim to pair sentences with propositions that determine truth conditions
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    • 2.Dynamic semantic theories instead assign sentences 'context change potentials' as their semantic values
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    • 3.Context change potentials are instructions for updating the context or discourse, not truth-conditional propositions
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    Reasons Against

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    • 1.Stalnaker's context-change framework (1978) derives update potentials from static truth conditions, showing dynamics can be grounded in, not prior to, propositions.
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    • 2.If context change potentials are systematically definable from truth-conditional content, dynamic semantics reduces to an extension of static theory, not a reversal of its priorities.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
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    • 1.Heim's file change semantics, often cited as paradigmatically dynamic, was explicitly developed to capture anaphora facts that Montague-style static semantics could not, targeting descriptive gaps rather than foundational explanatory priority.
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    • 2.Targeting a descriptive gap in a rival framework is not equivalent to reversing that framework's explanatory order, since both static and dynamic approaches may still treat truth conditions as the ultimate semantic target.
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    Topics

    Philosophy of Language

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    Related

    Context change potentials are instructions for updating the context or discourse...Dynamic semantic theories instead assign sentences 'context change potentials' a...Heim's file change semantics, often cited as paradigmatically dynamic, was expli...If context change potentials are systematically definable from truth-conditional...
    +3 moreShow less
    Stalnaker's context-change framework (1978) derives update potentials from stati...Static semantic theories primarily aim to pair sentences with propositions that ...Targeting a descriptive gap in a rival framework is not equivalent to reversing ...

    Similar

    Dynamic semantics is better characterized as an extension or generaliz...81%The Tarskian/Davidsonian approach to semantics is parsimonious compare...81%Logical semantics has a legitimate role to play in semantic theory81%A semantic theory must do more than simply assign contents to every ex...79%

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    Dynamic semantics is, to a first approximation, an approach to semantics which reverses these explanatory priorities. (The sorts of classical theories sketched above are, by contrast, called “static” semantic theories.) On a dynamic approach, a semantic theory does not aim primarily to deliver a pairing of sentences with propositions which then determine the sentence’s truth conditions. Rather, according to these dynamic approaches to semantics, the semantic values of sentences are rather “conte
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

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    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit