CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2022
| Author | Mahant, Nikhil |
|---|---|
| Title | Names are Words |
| Summary | This dissertation is an investigation of names qua words of ordinary language with wide ranging morphological, phonetic, and semantic properties. The four chapters following the introductory first chapter—each written as a standalone article arguing for a distinct conclusion—contribute to one or another aspect of a philosophical treatment of names that places central importance to their status as words. The second chapter argues that the dominant construal of names as simple tags makes them exceptional within the class of words—a consequence that must be avoided on grounds of uniformity and parsimony. The third chapter proposes a general way of distinguishing between literal and non-literal uses of names and argues that an important class of uses of names i.e., ‘predicative’ uses (e.g., the use of ‘Alfred’ in ‘there are no Alfreds in my cohort’) are literal. The last two chapters contain arguments for metalinguistic views of names i.e., views that specify the meaning of a name by mentioning the name. The fourth chapter defends metalinguistic views against the charge of circularity. The final chapter provides a new argument for metalinguistic views of names by focusing attention to a distinctive yet largely overlooked linguistic feature of names (i.e., unlike other words, the cross-linguistic uses of names are unproblematic and prevalent). |
| Supervisor | Crane, Tim |
| Department | Philosophy PhD |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2022/mahant_nikhil.pdf |
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