@asgeirberg.bsky.social has a new paper out on metasemantics called "Problems for ‘standard’ dispositionalist accounts of semantic content": link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Problems for ‘standard’ dispositionalist accounts of semantic content - Synthese
A popular view in metasemantics is the view that a speaker’s dispositions regarding the use of a symbol determine the meaning of that symbol for the speaker. Kripke (Wittgenstein on rules and private ...
link.springer.com
January 17, 2025 at 10:09 AM
@asgeirberg.bsky.social has a new paper out on metasemantics called "Problems for ‘standard’ dispositionalist accounts of semantic content": link.springer.com/article/10.1...
So maybe what unifies the realm of metasemantics for me is that it's the stuff that must make sense within the context of a broader metametasemantics....
December 23, 2024 at 2:32 PM
So maybe what unifies the realm of metasemantics for me is that it's the stuff that must make sense within the context of a broader metametasemantics....
Ethic analysis by AI. The missing shade of blue was not anywhere one could actually see it. Philosopher or economist?--yes. Impossible worlds, metasemantics, & more. Publishing regrets. A poem about philosophy of language...
Mini-Heap - Daily Nous
Newer links... Philosophers, is there anything you regret publishing? Why? -- the Philosophers' Cocoon poses an interesting question “What I learned from the philosophers of language” -- a sharp poem ...
dailynous.com
April 22, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Ethic analysis by AI. The missing shade of blue was not anywhere one could actually see it. Philosopher or economist?--yes. Impossible worlds, metasemantics, & more. Publishing regrets. A poem about philosophy of language...
kid explains 'none' = 'never' =(P —>∀t(~Pt)).
Why does stuff like this happen?
#metasemantics #logic #definitions #child-development
Why does stuff like this happen?
#metasemantics #logic #definitions #child-development
June 30, 2025 at 3:29 AM
kid explains 'none' = 'never' =(P —>∀t(~Pt)).
Why does stuff like this happen?
#metasemantics #logic #definitions #child-development
Why does stuff like this happen?
#metasemantics #logic #definitions #child-development
I'm inclined to think of Beaver+Stanley as providing a formal metasemantics of social meaning, and Henderson+McCready as providing a formal pragmatics of social meaning, but where's the semantics proper??
June 2, 2025 at 6:32 PM
I'm inclined to think of Beaver+Stanley as providing a formal metasemantics of social meaning, and Henderson+McCready as providing a formal pragmatics of social meaning, but where's the semantics proper??
All I want in life is to:
1 live in a democracy
2 figure out the metasemantics of social meaning
3 go backpacking a bunch
4 learn modicum of self-care
5 fall in love w/ someone who doesn't mind that I'm crazy sometimes
6 read a lot of books
7 see a lot of movies
8 have dog
9 learn Japanese
1 live in a democracy
2 figure out the metasemantics of social meaning
3 go backpacking a bunch
4 learn modicum of self-care
5 fall in love w/ someone who doesn't mind that I'm crazy sometimes
6 read a lot of books
7 see a lot of movies
8 have dog
9 learn Japanese
February 8, 2025 at 9:53 PM
All I want in life is to:
1 live in a democracy
2 figure out the metasemantics of social meaning
3 go backpacking a bunch
4 learn modicum of self-care
5 fall in love w/ someone who doesn't mind that I'm crazy sometimes
6 read a lot of books
7 see a lot of movies
8 have dog
9 learn Japanese
1 live in a democracy
2 figure out the metasemantics of social meaning
3 go backpacking a bunch
4 learn modicum of self-care
5 fall in love w/ someone who doesn't mind that I'm crazy sometimes
6 read a lot of books
7 see a lot of movies
8 have dog
9 learn Japanese
Both issues you are discussing fall under “metasemantics,” as they concern the grounds that determine meaning. There is another use of “metasemantics” that addresses issues related to the aims of semantic theory and the form a theory must take, etc. I prefer to call the latter “semantic metatheory”
December 22, 2024 at 1:31 AM
Both issues you are discussing fall under “metasemantics,” as they concern the grounds that determine meaning. There is another use of “metasemantics” that addresses issues related to the aims of semantic theory and the form a theory must take, etc. I prefer to call the latter “semantic metatheory”
A cursed thought I've been unable to shake is that the metasemantics of natural language social meaning that David Beaver & Jason Stanely propose in their explicitly anti-fascist book 'The Politics of Language' is accidentally the perfect semantics/pragmatics for LLMs.
What's really fascinating to me is that this accidentally ends up being the same theory of meaning that underlies LLMs: the meaning of a word is its gradient, probabilistic, ambient network of associations
August 17, 2025 at 1:16 PM
A cursed thought I've been unable to shake is that the metasemantics of natural language social meaning that David Beaver & Jason Stanely propose in their explicitly anti-fascist book 'The Politics of Language' is accidentally the perfect semantics/pragmatics for LLMs.
Am I right in thinking that David Kaplan's METAsemantics of expressives (ouch/oops paper) has received way less attention/development than its semantics?
Semantics: v v developed by Potts/McCready/Gutzmann. Metasemantics taken seriously by Beaver/Stanley — who else?
🐦🐦 #philsky
Semantics: v v developed by Potts/McCready/Gutzmann. Metasemantics taken seriously by Beaver/Stanley — who else?
🐦🐦 #philsky
March 10, 2024 at 9:23 PM
Am I right in thinking that David Kaplan's METAsemantics of expressives (ouch/oops paper) has received way less attention/development than its semantics?
Semantics: v v developed by Potts/McCready/Gutzmann. Metasemantics taken seriously by Beaver/Stanley — who else?
🐦🐦 #philsky
Semantics: v v developed by Potts/McCready/Gutzmann. Metasemantics taken seriously by Beaver/Stanley — who else?
🐦🐦 #philsky
9 year: you say that so often it’s lost all meaning
Me: [sinks into contemplation of metasemantics and articulate shutdowns]
Me: [sinks into contemplation of metasemantics and articulate shutdowns]
December 22, 2024 at 4:18 PM
9 year: you say that so often it’s lost all meaning
Me: [sinks into contemplation of metasemantics and articulate shutdowns]
Me: [sinks into contemplation of metasemantics and articulate shutdowns]
Looking to steam your suit? Then “ice” doesn’t refer to water.
July 5, 2025 at 2:26 AM
Looking to steam your suit? Then “ice” doesn’t refer to water.
there’s a different question “in virtue of what does ‘tall’ have that semantic entry?” which is what I’m proposing to call metasemantics
December 21, 2024 at 5:21 PM
there’s a different question “in virtue of what does ‘tall’ have that semantic entry?” which is what I’m proposing to call metasemantics
It’s really irresponsible for people to describe it as a ‘nazi salute’ without having read nick shea’s representation in cognitive science, and hence having no empirically informed metasemantics of public signs at all
January 21, 2025 at 1:33 AM
It’s really irresponsible for people to describe it as a ‘nazi salute’ without having read nick shea’s representation in cognitive science, and hence having no empirically informed metasemantics of public signs at all
yeah it's a metasemantics of ethical talk, duh
It's a mistake to think of metaethics as a metaphysics of ethics #PhilSky
October 14, 2023 at 3:43 PM
yeah it's a metasemantics of ethical talk, duh
This collection of essays, edited by @panuraatikainen.bsky.social, and containing also a piece by Vilma Venesmaa and myself, ”Unified (Enough) Metasemantics for Expressivists,” is now available, open access. #Philosophy #Philsky
The 100th volume of Acta Philosophica Fennica, "Essays in the Philosophy of Language", edited by Panu Raatikainen and with, among others, many Tampere philosophers, is now openly accessible:
#Philosophy #PhilSky
philpapers.org/rec/RAAEIT
#Philosophy #PhilSky
philpapers.org/rec/RAAEIT
Panu Raatikainen (ed.), _Essays in the Philosophy of Language._ Acta Philosophica Fennica Vol. 100. - PhilPapers
Table of Contents: Panu Raatikainen: Varieties of Ideal Language Philosophy. Jani Sinokki: Descartes on Language: How Signification Leads to Direct Reference. Matti Eklund: Carnapian Frameworks Revisi...
philpapers.org
December 9, 2024 at 3:18 PM
This collection of essays, edited by @panuraatikainen.bsky.social, and containing also a piece by Vilma Venesmaa and myself, ”Unified (Enough) Metasemantics for Expressivists,” is now available, open access. #Philosophy #Philsky
Metasemantics of character vs. metasemantics of content?
December 21, 2024 at 5:21 PM
Metasemantics of character vs. metasemantics of content?
Oh, my dear American friends...my very first post is for you!
paralleltexts.blog/2018/07/18/i...
#elections #metasemantics #translation #foscomaraini
paralleltexts.blog/2018/07/18/i...
#elections #metasemantics #translation #foscomaraini
Il lonfo by Fosco Maraini/ The rumphus
Reading in Italian by #GigiProietti, here. Il lonfo Fosco Maraini Il Lonfo non vaterca né gluisce e molto raramente barigatta, ma quando soffia il bego a bisce bisce, sdilenca un poco e gnagio s…
paralleltexts.blog
November 14, 2024 at 4:49 PM
Oh, my dear American friends...my very first post is for you!
paralleltexts.blog/2018/07/18/i...
#elections #metasemantics #translation #foscomaraini
paralleltexts.blog/2018/07/18/i...
#elections #metasemantics #translation #foscomaraini
it annoys me that “metasemantics” is ambiguous between “foundations of semantics” and “how the contents of particular semantically underdetermined expressions get resolved”. I propose we reserve “metasemantics” for the former and introduce “parasemantics” for the latter
December 21, 2024 at 4:50 PM
it annoys me that “metasemantics” is ambiguous between “foundations of semantics” and “how the contents of particular semantically underdetermined expressions get resolved”. I propose we reserve “metasemantics” for the former and introduce “parasemantics” for the latter
(There's also the interesting fact that B&S might actually work better as a metasemantics for LLMs than for humans, but that's a whole other story lol.)
August 12, 2025 at 9:53 PM
(There's also the interesting fact that B&S might actually work better as a metasemantics for LLMs than for humans, but that's a whole other story lol.)
@victorgijsbers I enjoyed reading it (some bits deeply, skimming others), but then, lately I’ve been neck deep in metasemantics, and I was primed to think about some of the issues he’s tracking. I agree that his prose style is an acquired taste.
His 1978 review of early work in the formal […]
His 1978 review of early work in the formal […]
Original post on hcommons.social
hcommons.social
July 10, 2025 at 4:06 PM
@victorgijsbers I enjoyed reading it (some bits deeply, skimming others), but then, lately I’ve been neck deep in metasemantics, and I was primed to think about some of the issues he’s tracking. I agree that his prose style is an acquired taste.
His 1978 review of early work in the formal […]
His 1978 review of early work in the formal […]
Final session of Metasemantics and AI Conference at Institute of Philosophy at University of London with Anandi Hattiangadi and Anders Schoubye on why the outputs of LLMs are meaningless
June 27, 2025 at 1:10 PM
Final session of Metasemantics and AI Conference at Institute of Philosophy at University of London with Anandi Hattiangadi and Anders Schoubye on why the outputs of LLMs are meaningless
well so I’d distinguish between “what determines how the content of particular expressions get completed” (what I called parasemantics) and “what determines what determines how the content of particular expressions get completed” (metasemantics)
December 23, 2024 at 2:38 PM
well so I’d distinguish between “what determines how the content of particular expressions get completed” (what I called parasemantics) and “what determines what determines how the content of particular expressions get completed” (metasemantics)
Simchen, Ori: Fregean Metasemantics _Philosophia Mathematica_ 33:1-17. 2025How the semantic significance of numerical discourse gets determined is a metasemantic issue par excellence. At the sub-sentential level, the issue is riddled with difficulties o...
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| Details | Interest | Feed |
Origin
philarchive.org
May 23, 2025 at 5:59 PM
I could definitely see it being the case that the character of expressions is set by norm magic (well, if I thought that was a plausible metasemantics) while those characters get filled in by intentions
December 23, 2024 at 2:25 PM
I could definitely see it being the case that the character of expressions is set by norm magic (well, if I thought that was a plausible metasemantics) while those characters get filled in by intentions
Related, and perhaps useful to remember while the "Odyssey" translation wars rage:
December 30, 2024 at 7:34 PM
Related, and perhaps useful to remember while the "Odyssey" translation wars rage: