Davis Wayne A. Nondescriptive Meaning and Reference: An Ideational Semantics

Clarendon Press, 2005. — xiii, 450 pages. — ISBN: 0-19-9261652; 978-0-19-926165-9.Wayne Davis presents a highly original approach to the foundations of semantics, showing how the so-called "expression" theory of meaning can handle names and other problematic cases of nondescriptive meaning. The fact that thoughts have parts ("ideas" or "concepts") is fundamental: Davis argues that like other unstructured words, names mean what they do because they are conventionally used to express atomic or basic ideas. In the process he shows that many pillars of contemporary philosophical semantics, from twin earth arguments to the necessity of identity, are unfounded.The Expression Theory of Meaning
Introduc tion
Thoughts
Ideas
Speaker Meaning and Expression
Word Meaning
Nondescriptive MeaningReference and Expression
Reference and Intention
Meaning and Reference
Names
Millian Theories
Defenses of Millianism
Fregean Theories
Standard Name Meaning
Formal Semantics
Rigidity and Identity