Abstract:
We hear someone talk in English about a job, in German about der Job and
in French about le job. Are these performances of the same word or of
different words? What is at stake in answering this question? How should
we individuate words? David Kaplan (1990) proposed various constraints
on word individuation, which John Hawthorne and Ernest Lepore (2011)
criticized and revised. I will argue that relating words and their
performances (written or oral) to one another involves considerably more
complexity than what participants in the debate have been recognizing.
Via the added complexity, we can highlight some crucial insights from
Kaplan about intentions accompanying performances of words.
Hawthorne, John and Ernest Lepore (2011). On Words. Forthcoming in
Journal of Philosophy.
Kaplan, David (1990). Words. Aristotelian society Supplementary Volume
64, 93–119.