Cogprints

Joint Meaning

Carassa, Prof Antonella and Colombetti, Prof Marco (2009) Joint Meaning. [Journal (On-line/Unpaginated)]

Full text available as:

[img] PDF - Published Version
285Kb

Abstract

In this paper we want to reconcile two apparently conflicting intuitions: the first is that what a speaker means is just a function of his or her communicative intentions, independently of what the hearer understands, and even of the actual existence of a hearer; the second is that when communication is carried out successfully, the resulting meaning is, in some important sense, jointly construed by the speaker and the hearer. Our strategy is to distinguish between speaker’s meaning, understood as a personal communicative intention, and joint meaning, understood as a joint construal of the speaker and the hearer. We define joint meaning as a type of propositional joint commitment, more precisely as the joint commitment of a speaker and a hearer to the extent that a specific communicative act has been performed by the speaker. Joint meaning is therefore regarded as a deontic concept, which entails obligations, rights, and entitlements, and cannot be reduced to epistemic and volitional mental states like personal belief, common belief, personal intention, and communicative intention.

Item Type:Journal (On-line/Unpaginated)
Keywords:Speaker's meaning, communicative intention, communicative act, deontic relationship, joint commitment, joint construal
Subjects:Philosophy > Philosophy of Language
Linguistics > Pragmatics
ID Code:6611
Deposited By: Colombetti, Prof Marco
Deposited On:07 Sep 2009 10:20
Last Modified:11 Mar 2011 08:57

References in Article

Select the SEEK icon to attempt to find the referenced article. If it does not appear to be in cogprints you will be forwarded to the paracite service. Poorly formated references will probably not work.

Airenti, Gabriella, Bara, Bruno G., and Colombetti, Marco, 1993. Conversation and behavior games in the pragmatics of dialogue. Cognitive Science 17 (2), 197–256.

Austin, John L., 1962. How to Do Things with Words. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (MA).

Bach, Kent, and Harnish, Robert M., 1979. Linguistic Communication and Speech Acts. MIT Press, Cambridge (MA).

Bratman, Michael E., 1987. Intention, Plans, and Practical Reason. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (MA).

Carassa, Antonella, Colombetti, Marco, and Morganti, Francesca, 2008. The role of joint commitments in intersubjectivity. In: Morganti, F., Carassa, A., and Riva, G. (Eds.), Enacting Intersubjectivity: Cognitive and Social Perspectives to the Study of Interactions. IOS Press, Amsterdam, pp. 187–201.

Clark, Herbert H., 1996. Using Language, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Clark, Herbert H., 2006. Social actions, social commitments. In: Enfield, N. J., and Levinson, S. C. (Eds.), Roots of Human Sociality. Berg, Oxford and New York.

Colombetti, Marco, 2000. A commitment–based approach to agent speech acts and conversations. Proceedings of the Workshop on Agent Languages and Communication Policies, 4th International Conference on Autonomous Agents, Barcelona, 21–29.

Gärdenfors, Peter, 2008. Evolutionary and developmental aspects of intersubjectivity. In: Liljenström, H., and Århem, P. (Eds.), Consciousness Transitions: Phylogenetic, Ontogenetic and Physiological Aspects. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 281–306.

Gibson, James J., 1977. The theory of affordances. In: Shaw, R., and Bransford, J. (Eds.), Perceiving, Acting, and Knowing: Toward an Ecological Psychology. Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale (NJ), pp. 67–82.

Gibson, James J., 1979. The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception. Houghton Mifflin, Boston.

Gilbert, Margaret, 1989. On Social Facts. Routledge, London and New York.

Gilbert, Margaret, 1996. Living together: Rationality, Sociality, and Obligation. Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham (MD).

Gilbert, Margaret, 2000. Sociality and Responsibility: New Essays in Plural Subject Theory. Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham (MD).

Gilbert, Margaret, 2006. A Theory of Political Obligation. Clarendon Press, Oxford.

Grice, H. Paul, 1957. Meaning. The Philosophical Review 66 (3), 377–388.

Grice, H. Paul, 1969. Utterer’s meaning and intentions. The Philosophical Review 78 (2), 147–177.

Grosz, Barbara J., and Hunsberger, Luke, 2006. The dynamics of intention in collaborative activity. Cognitive Systems Research 7, 259–272.

Hamblin, Charles L., 1970. Fallacies. Methuen, London.

Kuroda, S.-Y., 1989. An explanatory theory of communicative intentions. Linguistics and Philosophy 12, 655–681.

Norman, Donald A., 1988. The Psychology of Everyday Things. Basic Books, New York.

Norman, Donald A., 1999. Affordances, conventions, and design. Interactions 6 (3), 38–43.

Pinker, Steven, Nowak, Martin A., and Lee, James J., 2008. The logic of indirect speech. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 105 (3), 833–838.

Schiffer, Stephen R., 1972. Meaning, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Searle, John R., 1969. Speech Acts: An Essay in the Phylosophy of Language. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Searle, John R., 1976. A classification of illocutionary acts. Language in Society 5, 1–23.

Searle, John R., 1979. Expression and Meaning: Studies in the Theory of Speech Acts. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Searle, John R., 1983. Intentionality: An Essay in the Philosophy of Mind. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Searle, John R., 1990. Collective intentions and actions. In: Cohen, P. R., Morgan, J., and Pollak, M. E. (Eds.), Intentions in Communication. MIT Press, Cambridge (MA), pp. 401–415.

Searle, John R., 1992. Conversation. In: Parret, H., and Verschueren, J. (Eds.), (On) Searle on Conversation. Benjamins, New York, pp. 7–30.

Searle, John R., 1995. The Construction of Social Reality. Free Press, New York.

Searle, John R., 2001. Rationality in Action. MIT Press, Cambridge.

Searle, John R., 2007. What is language: Some preliminary remarks. In: Tsohatzidis, S. L. (Ed.), John Searle’s Philosophy of Language: Force, Meaning, and Mind. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 15–48.

Singh, Munindar P., 1998. Agent communication languages: Rethinking the principles. IEEE Computer 31 (12), 40–47.

Strawson, Peter F., 1964. Intention and convention in speech acts. The Philosophical Review 73 (4), 439–460.

Tollefsen, Deborah, 2002. Collective intentionality and the social sciences. Philosophy of the Social Sciences 32 (1), 25–50.

Walton, Douglas N., and Krabbe, Erik C. W., 1995. Commitment in Dialogue: Basic Concepts of Interpersonal Reasoning. State University of New York Press, Albany (NY).

Winograd, Terry, and Flores, Fernando, 1986. Understanding Computers and Cognition: A New Foundation for Design. Ablex, Norwood (MA).

Metadata

Repository Staff Only: item control page

Cogprints is powered by EPrints 3 which is developed by the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton. More information and software credits.