Reference, existence and truth in discourse
It is a long established and still respectable claim in the linguistic discipline that sentences containing reference to non-existent objects have no truth-value. This thesis is an attempt to provide a richer and more accurate account of the interesting relations which connect the existence or non-existence of objects and the expressions by which speakers attempt to refer to them with the range of truth-values assigned to sentences containing such expressions. After an introductory chapter whch defines the main terms used in the thesis and discusses preliminary issues, the second chapter is taken up with a critical review of the history of presupposition in linguistics. The important early theoretical contributions are surveyed and the relevant later theories discussed, particularly those analyses which acknowledge the complexities of the relationshp between failed presuppositions and truth-values . These are evaluated with respect to their empirical and theoretical adequacy and the chapter concludes with a summary of the outstanding problems. Chapter three contains a discussion of determiners focusing on the existential aspects of their meaning. An analysis of existential force as a scalar phenomenon is proposed
McPherson, Catriona
linguistics
Reference, existence and truth in discourse. It is a long established and still respectable claim in the linguistic discipline that sentences containing reference to non-existent objects have no truth-value. This thesis is an attempt to provide a richer and more accurate account of the interesting relations which connect the existence or non-existence of objects and the expressions by which speakers attempt to refer to them with the range of truth-values assigned to sentences containing such expressions. After an introductory chapter whch defines the main terms used in the thesis and discusses preliminary issues, the second chapter is taken up with a critical review of the history of presupposition in linguistics. The important early theoretical contributions are surveyed and the relevant later theories discussed, particularly those analyses which acknowledge the complexities of the relationshp between failed presuppositions and truth-values . These are evaluated with respect to their empirical and theoretical adequacy and the chapter concludes with a summary of the outstanding problems. Chapter three contains a discussion of determiners focusing on the existential aspects of their meaning. An analysis of existential force as a scalar phenomenon is proposed
reference existence truth discourse long establish still respectable claim linguistic discipline sentence_contain reference non_existent object truth_value attempt_provide rich accurate account interesting relation connect existence non existence object expression speaker attempt refer range truth_values assign sentence_contain expression introductory defines main term use discus preliminary issue second take critical_review history presupposition linguistics important early theoretical contribution survey relevant late theory discuss particularly analysis acknowledge fail presupposition truth_values evaluate respect empirical_theoretical adequacy conclude summary outstanding problem contains discussion determiner focus existential aspect mean analysis existential force scalar phenomenon propose