Change Don’t Come Easy: Nonnegotiable Meanings

Una Stojnić, Ernie Lepore

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

We often use language creatively, introducing new expressions on the fly. That we can successfully communicate with novel expressions without antecedent semantic knowledge has led many to a dynamic meaning hypothesis: namely, we can actively renegotiate extant semantic conventions to better suit our communicative, practical, and even normative concerns. We argue that this hypothesis is a mistake: meanings are non-negotiable, and so, lexical innovation cannot proceed by way of meaning-negotiation.

Original languageEnglish (US)
JournalAustralasian Journal of Philosophy
DOIs
StateAccepted/In press - 2024

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Philosophy

Keywords

  • communication
  • content
  • ignorance and error
  • lexical innovation
  • meaning change
  • metalinguistic negotiation

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