Barker, Sean (UK) schrieb:
> Catching up on this thread, and several sub-threads:
>
>
> b) From a natural language view, I might take "Pat is sleeping" to mean
> something like, "please don't make to much noise, or you might wake him
> up". Sentences in natural language have (ultimately) the function of
> influencing human behaviour, rather than modelling the world, and only
> do the latter when specifically making such a claim. (01)
In this sub-thread you should consult the speech act theoretic tradition
(Austin, Grice, Searle). In contradistinction to logicians, they are
analysing natural languages at work. In Austin's famous tripartite
terminology (locutionary-illocutionary-perlocutionary), your example
comes out as follows. The utterance "Pat is sleeping" is an assertive
'illocutionary act'; it is made by means of the meaning of the
expression 'Pat is sleeping' (this is its 'locutionary content'); and it
is intended to have the function or 'perlocutionary effect' of making
the hearers abstain from making too much noise. (02)
That is, in your terminology, *by* modelling the world the speaker wants
to influence the behaviour of the hearer. Your analysis (where you try
to find one meaning hidden in another meaning) leads to a false
counterposing of 'modelling' to 'influencing'. (03)
best,
Ingvar (04)
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