Přehlížení konvencí

Abstract

This critical review engages with Michael Devitt’s exposition on language theory and communication as presented in his book Overlooking Conventions. The review is comprised of two main sections. In the first, Devitt’s theory is elucidated, encompassing both its negative delineations in relation to linguistic pragmatism/contextualism and its affirmative attributes concerning the pre-eminence of speaker meaning and convention. The second section delves deeper into Devitt’s conception of polysemy, scrutinizing three contentious facets of his approach: (i) the reductive characterization of polysemy and its consequential omission of emerging/new linguistic usages; (ii) the parameter of regularity and its function in distinguishing novel usages from established or conventional ones; and (iii) the principled identification of polysemy and homonymy, coupled with the dismissal of psycholinguistic evidence supporting their differentiation.

Keywords

• semantics – pragmatics distinction
• convention
• michael devitt
• polysemy