Philosophy of Language: A Contemporary Introduction

Now in its fourth edition, Philosophy of Language: A Contemporary Introduction introduces students to the main issues and theories in twenty-first-century philosophy of language, focusing specifically on linguistic phenomena.

Author William G. Lycan structures the book’s thirteen chapters into four general parts. Part I, Reference and referring, includes topics such as Russell’s Theory of Descriptions (and its failings), Donnellan’s distinction, problems of anaphora, the Description Theory o...