Position
Speaker-Meaning
An expression means what it does because of what speakers intend to communicate by it, so meaning in a language is built out of the intentions behind particular utterances.
Classification
- Position level
- specific
- Domains
- Philosophy of Language
Overview
Grice separated what a sentence means in a language from what a speaker means in uttering it, and then argued that the second is the more basic. A speaker means something by an utterance when they intend it to produce a response in a hearer, and intend the hearer to recognise that very intention.
Standing sentence meaning is then explained as what speakers in a community conventionally use a form to mean. The direction of explanation is what makes this an answer to the question of what grounds meaning: mind first, language second.
Position on
References
- H. P. Grice, 'Meaning', Philosophical Review 66 (1957)
- H. P. Grice, 'Meaning', Philosophical Review 66 (1957), which analyses what an utterance means in terms of the speaker's intention to produce a belief in an audience by way of that audience recognising the intention