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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Referential Mechanism of Proper Names: Cross-Cultural Investigations Into Referential Intuitions

The Referential Mechanism of Proper Names: Cross-Cultural Investigations Into Referential Intuitions

Li, Jincai

Hardcover

Series: Routledge Studies in Linguistics

PhilosophyLinguistics

ISBN10: 0367497719
ISBN13: 9780367497712
Publisher: Routledge
Published: Sep 30 2022
Pages: 178
Weight: 0.99
Height: 0.50 Width: 6.14 Depth: 9.21
Language: English

Each of us bears a unique name given to us at birth. When people use your name, they typically refer to you. But what is the linkage that ties a name to a person and hence allows it to refer?

Li's book approaches this question of reference empirically through the medium of referential intuitions. Building on the literature on philosophical and linguistic intuitions, she proposes a linguistic-competence-based account of referential intuitions. Subsequently, using a series of novel experiments, she investigates the variation of referential intuitions across different cultures, as well as the developmental trajectory and the underlying causes of the observed cultural differences. What she finds is that the cultural patterns of referential intuitions are already in place around age seven, and the differences are largely attributable to the distinct perspective-taking strategies favoured by easterners and westerners, rather than the moral valence of actions involved in the experimental materials. These results are taken to better support referential pluralism (in particular, the ambiguous view) than referential monism.

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