Context and intention A cross-linguistic study of the notion of meaning in Arabic, Spanish and English

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David Bordonaba Plou
Universidad Complutense de Madrid, España
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0788-9733
Laila Miriam Jreis Navarro
Universidad de Zaragoza, España
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4455-4745

Abstract

The philosophy of language has three different understandings of context: an intuitive notion of context, context-K (Lewis, 1980; Kaplan, 1989), and context as common ground (Stalnaker, 2002). Likewise, from philosophy itself has been advocated that the concrete language we speak and in which we do philosophy could influence the philosophical explanations we develop to account for certain phenomena (Lucy, 1992; Blanco Salgueiro, 2017). More specifically, the possibility of a close relationship between meaning and intention in English has been defended (Avramides, 1989; Blanco Salgueiro, 2017, 2023). This could make the explanations developed by English-speaking philosophers of language be influenced by this relation. The aim of this paper is twofold. First, to show that the aforementioned intentional understanding of meaning is present in all three notions of context used in the philosophy of language. Second, to empirically investigate the relationship between meaning and intention in three different languages, English, Arabic, and Spanish, to determine whether the three understandings of context can be extrapolated to other languages.

Item information
Published: Dec 28, 2023
Issue: No. 24 (2023): Palabra y Razón
Section: Artículos Dossier
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29035/pyr.24.61
Keywords: context, cross-linguistic studies, Arabic, Spanish, colocations

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How to Cite
Bordonaba Plou, D., & Jreis Navarro, L. M. (2023). Context and intention: A cross-linguistic study of the notion of meaning in Arabic, Spanish and English. Palabra Y Razón, 24, 61-85. https://doi.org/10.29035/pyr.24.61
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