Arguably, utterances of natural language sentences correspond to unambiguous syntactic structures, which in turn, in context, have truth-conditions. Extra-linguistic context plays a role in the passage from syntactic structure to truth-conditions; together with linguistic meaning, it helps determine truth-conditions. We will look at several relatively uncontroversially context-dependent constructions as case studies, in the hope of gaining a precise understanding of the ways in which context affects truth-conditions. But our chief goal will be to investigate the different roles played by extra-linguistic context in the determination of truth-conditions, with an eye towards the foundational questions they pose. How does the recognition of the truth-conditional role of context affect the form an account of linguistic content should take? Does extra-linguistic context undermine the systematicity of the mapping from syntactic structures and contexts to truth-conditions? How should extra-linguistic contexts be represented in a theory of meaning?
    I hope to leave some space at the end of the class to look at some appeals to extra-linguistic context in the resolution of philosophical puzzles and paradoxes; in particular, in the resolution of skepticism, and the resolution of the liar paradox.

First Readings

Richard Montague, "Pragmatics"
Robert Stalnaker, "Pragmatics", Sections I & II
Recommended: Hans Kamp, "Formal Properties of 'Now'", Intro and Section I

Second Reading

David Kaplan, "Demonstratives"

Third Readings

David Lewis, "Index, Content, and Context"
Mark Richard, "Temporalism and Eternalism"
Mark Richard, "Tenses, Propositions, and Meanings"

Fourth Readings

Barbara Partee, "Some Structural Analogies between tenses and pronouns in English"
Barbara Partee, "Nominal and Temporal Reference"
Johann van Bentham, "Tense Logic and Standard Logic"
Max Cresswell, selections from Entities and Indices

Fifth Readings

Max Cresswell, Chapter 8 of Logics and Languages
The rest of Stalnaker, "Pragmatics"
Stalnaker, "Indicative Conditionals"

Sixth Readings

Jason Stanley and Zoltan Gendler Szabo, "On Quantifier Domain Restriction", Section II
Robert Stalnaker, selections from "Reference and Necessity"
Christopher Gauker, "What is a Context of Utterance?"

Seventh Readings

Howard Wettstein, "How to Bridge the Gap between Meaning and Reference"
Marga Reimer, "Demonstratives, Demonstrations, and Demonstrata"
Marga Reimer, "Three Views of Demonstrative Reference"
Kent Bach, "Intentions and Demonstrations"
Susanna Siegel, selections from Perception and Linguistic Demonstration (PhD Thesis, Cornell)

Eighth Readings

Howard Wettstein, "Demonstrative Reference and Definite Descriptions"
Nathan Salmon, "Assertion and Incomplete Definite Descriptions"
Nathan Salmon, "The Pragmatic Fallacy"
William Blackburn, "Wettstein on Definite Descriptions"
Marga Reimer, "The Wettstein/Salmon Debate: Critique and Resolution"

Ninth Readings

Scott Soames, "Incomplete Definite Descriptions"
François Recanati, "Domains of Discourse"

Tenth Readings

Stephen Neale, selections from Descriptions
Kent Bach, "Semantic Specificity and Mixed Quantifiers"
Jason Stanley and Zoltan Gendler Szabo, "On Quantifier Domain Restriction"
Kent Bach, "Reply to Stanley and Szabo"

Recommended

James Higginbotham, "Context, Models, and Meanings: A Note on the Data of Semantics"
Marga Reimer, "Quantification and Context"

Eleventh Readings

Jakko Hintikka, "The Semantics of 'a certain'"
Barbara Partee, "Binding Implicit Variables in Quantified Contexts"
[An unpublished Higginbotham paper, if I can get permission]

Twelfth Reading

Dan Sperber and Diedre Wilson, selections from Relevance: Communication and Cognition
Robyn Carston, "Implicature, Explicature, and Truth-Theoretic Semantics"
Kent Bach, "Conversational Impliciture"
François Recanati, Chapter 13 of Direct Reference
Jason Stanley, "Context and Logical Form", Section I

Thirteenth Readings

John Perry, "Thought without Representation"
Mark Crimmins, selections from Talk about Beliefs
Jason Stanley, "Context and Logical Form", Section III

Fourteenth Readings

Ellen Barton, selections from Nonsentential Constituents
Robert Stainton, "Nonsentential Assertion"
Robert Stainton, "Utterance Meaning and Syntactic Ellipsis"
Robert Stainton, "Quantifier Phrases, Meaningfulness 'In Isolation', and Ellipsis"
Jason Stanley, "Context and Logical Form", Section II

Fifteenth Readings

Charles Travis, "Pragmatics"
Charles Travis, "On Constraints of Generality"
Zoltan Gendler Szabo, adjectives paper responding to Travis.