Semantics, Tense, and Time

An Essay in the Metaphysics of Natural Language
Erscheinungsjahr 1999
ISBN: 978-0-262-12219-1
Verlag: MIT Press (MA)

Buch, Englisch, 276 Seiten, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 590 g

Reihe: Bradford Books

According to Peter Ludlow, there is a very close relation between the
structure of natural language and that of reality, and one can gain insights into
long-standing metaphysical questions by studying the semantics of natural language.
In this book Ludlow uses the metaphysics of time as a case study and focuses on the
dispute between A-theorists and B-theorists about the nature of time. According to
B-theorists, there is no genuine change, but a permanent sequence of events ordered
by an earlier-than/later-than relation. According to the version of the A-theory
adopted by Ludlow (a position sometimes called "presentism"), there are no past or
future events or times; what makes something past or future is how the world stands
right now.Ludlow argues that each metaphysical picture is tied to a particular
semantical theory of tense and that the dispute can be adjudicated on semantical
grounds. A presentism-compatible semantics, he claims, is superior to a B-theory
semantics in a number of respects, including its abilities to handle the indexical
nature of temporal discourse and to account for facts about language acquisition.
Along the way, Ludlow develops a conception of "E-type" temporal anaphora that can
account for both temporal anaphora and complex tenses without reference to past and
future events. His view has philosophical consequences for theories of logic,
self-knowledge, and memory. As for linguistic consequences, Ludlow suggests that the
very idea of grammatical tense may have to be dispensed with and replaced with some
combination of aspect, modality, and evidentiality.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Ludlow, Peter

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Sprachwissenschaften Sprachphilosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Erkenntnistheorie
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Sprachphilosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Semantik & Pragmatik

Über Autor(innen)

Peter Ludlow, Professor of Philosophy and James B. and Grace J. Nelson Fellow at the University of Michigan, is the author of Semantics, Tense, and Time: An Essay in the Metaphysics of Natural Language (MIT Press, 1999), among other books, and the editor of Crypto Anarchy, Cyberstates, and Pirate Utopias (MIT Press, 2001) and High Noon on the Electronic Frontier (MIT Press, 1996).