Do linguistic meanings meet linguistic form?
Andrés Saab
October 2021
 

In this short note, I comment both a recent book by Duffley and a recent interview to Chomsky, which, in spite of irreconcilable differences, coincide in the idea that we do not need interpretation functions in order to interpret natural language objects. I argue the idea is based on the Saussurean sign dogma, according to which there is a biunivocal connection between form and meaning. Once the dogma is abandoned, in favor of an empirically more accurate one-to-many connection view, then a theory using interpretation functions, or similar formal devices, offers a more interesting theory of the syntax-semantics interface.
Format: [ pdf ]
Reference: lingbuzz/006249
(please use that when you cite this article)
Published in: To appear in Manuscrito
keywords: interpretation function, multidimensional semantics, expressives, semantics, syntax
previous versions: v1 [October 2021]
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