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For a sentence S to express a proposition p in some group, there must be something like an agreement in that group to maintain a regularity between utterances of S and agents' believing p.

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1 reason for

2 reasons against

Reasons For

1 perspective

Reason for

1.Bare regularities between utterances and belief states are insufficient to ground meaning.
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2.A regularity is a matter of convention when it obtains because there is something akin to an agreement among a group of people to keep the regularity in place.
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3.Convention-based analyses can account for cases that bare regularity analyses cannot.
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Reasons Against

2 perspectives

Reason against 1 of 2

1.Wittgenstein's rule-following considerations show that no finite pattern of use fixes a unique regularity, so 'agreement to maintain a regularity' is indeterminate.
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2.If the regularity itself cannot be uniquely identified, no agreement can be specified as the one sustaining it, making convention-based grounding circular.
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Reason against 2 of 2

1.Chomsky and others argue that linguistic meaning is grounded in internalized generative competence, not social agreement, since isolated speakers acquire meaning without convention.
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2.If children acquire semantic content before participating in any group agreement, then agreement cannot be a necessary condition for sentence-meaning.
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Topics

Philosophy of Language

Key Terms

convention (or agreement)(as used in philosophy of language): An unofficial rule or shared understanding that a group follows together, even though it's not written down anywhere. Language meaning itself is based on conventions—we all agree that 'cat' means a furry animal, so it does.
proposition(Used in the context of a semantic theory sensitive to differences in subject matter.): The content expressed by a sentence, individuated at least in part by the subject matter of the sentence and the contents of its subsentential expressions.
regularity(Violated in de Finetti's lottery when each ticket is assigned probability 0): The property of a probability function whereby every possible event (every non-empty set of outcomes) receives positive probability
utterance(Contrast drawn in discussing the referent of demonstrative 'that'): A concrete event (an utterance-token), as opposed to an abstract utterance-type.

A regularity is a matter of convention when it obtains because there is somethin...Bare regularities between utterances and belief states are insufficient to groun...Chomsky and others argue that linguistic meaning is grounded in internalized gen...Convention-based analyses can account for cases that bare regularity analyses ca...

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If children acquire semantic content before participating in any group agreement...If the regularity itself cannot be uniquely identified, no agreement can be spec...

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AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid

SEP: meaning

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Because of cases like this, it seems that regularities in meaning and belief are not sufficient to ground an analysis of meaning. For this reason, many proponents of a mentalist analysis of meaning in terms of belief have sought instead to analyze meaning in terms of conventions governing such regularities. Roughly, a regularity is a matter of convention when the regularity obtains because there is something akin to an agreement among a group of people to keep the regularity in place. So, applie

Extraction notes

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

Details

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

For a sentence S to express a proposition p in some group, there must be something like an agreement in that group to maintain a regularity between utterances of S and agents' believing p.

Reasons For

Reasons Against

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