Jump to content

Inferential role semantics

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Ljsreader (talk | contribs) at 02:43, 13 July 2015 (added stub tag). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Inferential role semantics (also conceptual role semantics, functional role semantics, procedural semantics) is an approach to the theory of meaning that identifies the meaning of an expression with its relationship to other expressions, typically its inferential relations with other expressions. Proponents include Robert Brandom,[1][2] Gilbert Harman,[3] Paul Horwich, and Ned Block.[4] Inferential role semantics originated in the later work of Ludwig Wittgenstein.

Inferential role semantics is sometimes contrasted to truth-conditional semantics. Jerry Fodor coined the term "inferential role semantics" in order to criticise it as a holistic (i.e. essentially non-compositional) approach to the theory of meaning.

The approach is related to accounts of proof-theoretic semantics in the semantics of logic which associate meaning with the reasoning process.

References

  1. ^ Pragmatism and Inferentialism
  2. ^ *Brandom, Robert (2000). Articulating Reasons: An Introduction to Inferentialism. Harvard University Press. p. 230. ISBN 0-674-00158-3.
  3. ^ "(Nonsolipsistic) Conceptual Role Semantics" by Gilbert Harman
  4. ^ "Conceptual Role Semantics" by Ned Block


Stub icon

This semantics article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

Stub icon

This linguistics article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Inferential_role_semantics&oldid=671193124"