1st Edition

Quotation and Truth-Conditional Pragmatics

By Xiaofei Wang Copyright 2018
    186 Pages
    by Routledge

    186 Pages 8 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    In the past decades, quotation theories have developed roughly along three lines—quotation types, meaning effects, and theoretical orientations toward the semantics/pragmatics distinction. Currently, whether the quoted expression is truth-conditionally relevant to the quotational sentence, and if there is a truth-conditional impact, whether it is generated via semantic or pragmatic processes, have become the central concerns of quotation studies.



    In this book, quotation is clearly defined for the first time as a constituent embedded within yet distinctive from the quotational sentence. Also, as the first monograph to address the semantics/pragmatics boundary dispute over quotation, it argues that the semantic content of quotation amounts to its contribution to the intuitive truth-conditional content of the quotational utterance via two modes of presentation, which are incarnated in the functioning of quotation marks and manifested as use and mention. The use/mention-based analysis in this book can shed light on the semantic theorizing of other metalinguistic phenomena, while the semantics/pragmatics perspective will provide methodological implications for other relevant studies.



    The new conception of quotation and thought-provoking analysis on use/mention, truth-conditional pragmatics, and the semantics/pragmatics boundary in this book will appeal to scholars and students in philosophy of language and linguistics. It will also serve as a clear guide to the current state of quotation studies and how to formulate a semantic theory of quotation.

    List of Illustrations.  Preface.  Acknowledgements.  List of Abbreviations  Chapter 1 Quotation and Use/Mention  Chapter 2 Classic Theories of Quotation  Chapter 3 Quotation and the Semantics/Pragmatics Boundary Dispute  Chapter 4 Truth-Conditional Pragmatics  Chapter 5 A TCP-Informed Semantic Theory of Quotation  Chapter 6 A Trichotomous Construal of the Mention-Dimension of Quotation  Chapter 7 A Trichotomous Conception of the Use-Dimension of Quotation  Chapter 8 Toward Integration of the Two Trichotomies for a Semantic Theory of Quotation  Chapter 9 Conclusion  References.  Index

    Biography

    Xiaofei Wang is an associate professor of linguistics at the University of Electronic Science and Engineering of China. Her research interests include truth-conditional pragmatics and the semantics/pragmatics boundary dispute.