Meaning and responsibility

• Published in: Mind & language Vol. 38; no. 3; pp. 809 - 827
• Main Authors: Buchanan, Ray, Schiller, Henry Ian
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.06.2023; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: assertion; commitment; exculpature; intentionalism; loose talk; Meaning; Responsibility; Responsiveness; Speech; subject matter; Word meaning

In performing an act of assertion we are sometimes responsible for more than the content of the literal meaning of the words we have used, sometimes less. A recently popular research program seeks to explain certain of the commitments we make in speech in terms of responsiveness to the conversationa...