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    Linguistic conventions are constituted by regularities in... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→A speaker's intention figures into the overall function that determines the creation or maintenance of a linguistic convention

    Linguistic conventions are constituted by regularities in behavior and mutual expectation, not by the mental states that accompany or produce them (Lewis 1969).

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    Reasons For

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    • 1.Observable behavior and mutual expectations are publicly verifiable, while mental states are private and epistemically inaccessible to other speakers.
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    • 2.Children acquire language by tracking behavioral regularities and social patterns, not by introspecting on their own mental content.
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    • 3.The same mental state can produce different linguistic behavior across contexts, suggesting mental states alone don't constitute linguistic meaning.
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    Reasons Against

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    • 1.Regularities can exist without convention—water molecules behave regularly without constituting social conventions or linguistic meanings.
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    • 2.People can follow a linguistic rule while lacking mutual expectations, as when isolated speakers suddenly coordinate without prior interaction.
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    • 3.Mental states explaining linguistic behavior may be explanatorily prior to and constitutive of the regularities Lewis identifies as fundamental.
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    Related

    A speaker's intention figures into the overall function that determines the crea...Children acquire language by tracking behavioral regularities and social pattern...Mental states explaining linguistic behavior may be explanatorily prior to and c...Observable behavior and mutual expectations are publicly verifiable, while menta...
    +3 moreShow less
    People can follow a linguistic rule while lacking mutual expectations, as when i...Regularities can exist without convention—water molecules behave regularly witho...The same mental state can produce different linguistic behavior across contexts,...

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