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It is often supposed that we can make progress understanding singular thought about objects by claiming that thinkers use ‘mental files’. However, the proposal is rarely subject to sustained critical evaluation. This thesis aims to clarify and critique the claim that thinkers use mental files. In my introductory first chapter, I motivate my subsequent discussion by introducing the claim that thinkers deploy modes of presentation in their thought about objects, and lay out some of my assumptions and terminology. In the second chapter, I introduce mental files, responding to the somewhat fragmented files literature by setting out a core account of files, and outlining different ways of implementing the claim that thinkers use mental files. I highlight pressing questions about the synchronic and diachronic individuation conditions for files. In chapters three and four, I explore whether ‘de jure coreference’ can be used to give synchronic individuation conditions on mental files. I explore existing characterisations of de jure coreference before presenting my own, but conclude that de jure coreference does not give a useful account of the synchronic individuation conditions on files. In chapter five, I consider the proposal that thinkers must sometimes trade on the coreference of their mental representations, and argue that we can give synchronic individuation conditions on files in terms of trading on coreference. In chapter six, I bring together the account of files developed so far, compare it to the most developed theory of mental files published to date, and defend my account from the objection that it is circular. In chapter seven, I explore routes for giving diachronic individuation conditions on mental files. In my concluding chapter, I distinguish the core account of files from the idea that the file metaphor should be taken seriously. I suggest that my investigation of the consequences of the core account has shown that the file metaphor is unhelpful, and I outline reasons to exercise caution when using ‘files’ terminology.

This thesis consists of four essays and an introduction dedicated to two main topics: indexicality and presupposition. The first essay is concerned with an alleged problem for the standard treatment of indexicals on which their linguistic meanings are functions from context to content (so-called characters). Since most indexicals have their content settled, on an occasion of use, by the speaker’s intentions, some authors have argued that this standard picture is inadequate. By demonstrating that intentions can be seen as a parameter of the kind of context that characters operate on, these arguments are rejected. In addition, it is argued that a more recent, variable-based framework is naturally interpreted as an intention-sensitive semantics. The second essay is devoted to the phenomenon of descriptive uses of indexicals on which such an expression seems to contribute, not its standard reference as determined by its character, but a property to the interpretation. An argument that singular readings of the cases in question are incoherent is shown to be incorrect, and an approach to descriptive readings is developed on which they arise from e-type uses akin to other well known cases. Further, descriptive readings of the relevant kind are seen to arise only in the presence of adverbs of quantification, and all sentences in which such an adverb takes scope over an indexical are claimed to be ambiguous between a referential and an e-type (descriptive) reading. The third essay discusses a version of the variable analysis of pronouns on which their descriptive meanings are relegated to the so-called phi-features – person, gender and number. In turn, the phi-features are here seen as triggering semantic presuppositions that place constraints on the definedness of pronouns, and ultimately of sentences in which they appear. It is argued that the descriptive information contributed by the phi-features diverges radically from presuppositional information of both semantic and pragmatic varieties on several dimensions of comparison, and instead the main role of the phi-features is seen to be that of guiding hearers’ attempts to ascertain the speaker’s intentions. The fourth essay addresses an issue concerning the treatment of presuppositions in dynamic semantics. Representing a semantic treatment of pragmatic presuppositions, the dynamic framework is shown to incorrectly regard conversational infelicity as sufficient for semantic undefinedness, given the standard way of defining truth in terms of context change. Further, it is shown that a proposal for a solution fail to make correct predictions for epistemic modals. A novel framework is developed on which context change potentials act on contexts that have more structure than the contexts usually countenanced by dynamic semantics, and it is shown that this framework derives truth from context change while making correct predictions for both presuppositions and modals.

The historical development of Morris’ tripartite distinction between syntax, semantics and pragmatics does not follow a smooth path. Examining definitions of the terms ‘semantic’ and ‘pragmatic’ and the phenomena they have been used to describe, provides insight into alternative approaches to the semantics/pragmatics distinction. Paul Grice’s work receives particular attention and taxonomy of philosophical positions, roughly divisible into content minimalist and maximalist groups, is set up. Grice’s often neglected theory of conventional implicature is defended from objections, various tests for the presence of conventional implicature are assessed and the linguistic properties of conventional implicature defined. Once rehabilitated, the theoretical utility of conventional implicature is demonstrated via a case study of the semantic import of the gender and number of pronouns in English. The better-known theory of conversational implicature is also examined and refined. New linguistic tests for such implicatures are devised and the refined theory is applied to scalar terms. A pragmatic approach to scalar implicatures is proposed and shown to fare better than alternatives presented by Uli Sauerland, Stephen Levinson and Gennaro Chierchia. With the details of the theory conversational implicature established, the use made of Grice’s tool in the work of several philosophers is critically evaluated. Kent Bach’s minimalist approach to quantifier domain restriction is examined and criticised. Also, the linguistic evidence for semantic minimalism provided by Herman Cappelen and Ernie Lepore is found wanting. Finally, a content maximalist approach to quantifier domain restriction is proposed. The approach differs from other context maximalist theories, such as Jason Stanley’s, in relying on semantically unarticulated constituents. Stanley’s arguments against such theories are examined. Further applications of the approach are briefly surveyed.

A work of poetry that offers a new method of poetics. By examining translation as a means of understanding relationships, this work offers a nuanced manner for the writing and experience of poetry. When Bird and Fish Fall in Love is a close examination of language, relationships, translation, and the intimacy of conflation.

O estudo teórico da obra de Bakhtin e seu Círculo demanda um aprofundamento em vários contextos: um estudo historiográfico da obra em relação ao contexto russo de sua produção; um estudo comparativo das traduções em que a obra, escrita originariamente em russo, circula e é interpretada no Ocidente; e a busca de uma, entre múltiplas entradas na obra, que nos permita avançar nos seus estudos da linguagem. Neste trabalho, recuperamos fragmentos da construção de uma ciência da linguagem - a Metalingüística -, comparando duas obras de 1929 - Marxismo e Filosofia da Linguagem (Volochinov) e Problemas da obra de Dostoiévski (Bakhtin) - com a segunda edição do livro de Bakhtin sobre Dostoiévski - Problemas da poética de Dostoiévski (1963), onde Bakhtin menciona pela primeira vez, publicamente, essa nova ciência. Essa comparação revelou que já nos livros de 1929, o objeto da Metalingüística - as relações dialógicas e a palavra bivocal - estavam propostos; e que há uma transição de uma Filosofia marxista da linguagem e uma Sociologia da palavra, nos primeiros, para a Metalingüística. Na primeira parte da tese, levantamos alguns aspectos gerais da obra tais como: 1) as relações das fontes primárias com o contexto histórico russo; e 2) alguns problemas de tradução de categorias relacionados com o nosso tema. A segunda parte, trata da evolução do problema do diálogo na própria construção da Metalingüística e de sua orientação filosófica, a partir dos seguintes contextos: a Filosofia marxista da linguagem (Volochinov) em relação com o problema do diálogo; as relações entre a Sociologia da palavra e a Metalingüística; e, por último, as relações da Metalingüística com a Lingüística. Os resultados da pesquisa apontam para uma reinserção da Metalingüística nos estudos bakhtinianos atuais, como uma entrada importante para a análise dialógica da linguagem. / The theoretical research of Bakhtin and his circle’s works require an indepth study of various contexts: a historiographical study in relation to the Russian context of its production; a comparative study of translations in which the work, written originally in the Russian language, circulate and is interpreted; and the demand of a context, among the multiple entries in that work, which allowed us to go further in their study of language. In this work, we recover some fragments of Bakhtin’s science of language, that is, Metalinguistics, comparing two works from 1929 - Marxism and Philosophy of Language (Voloshinov) and Problems of Dostoevsky’s Art (Bakhtin) - with the second version of Bakhtin’s book on Dostoevsky - Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics (1963), where for the first time Bakhtin mentions this new science. The comparison reveals that in the 1929’s works the object of Metalinguistics - dialogical relationship and double-voiced word - was already proposed, and that there is a transition from the first two works to the second, from a Marxist philosophy of language and Sociology of words to Metalinguistics. In the first part of the thesis, we show some general aspects of the work such as: 1) the relationships between the primary database and the Russian historical context and 2) some problems of translation of categories related to our theme. The second part, tries to show the evolution of the problem of dialogue in the construction of Metalinguistcs and its philosophical orientation on the following contexts: Marxist philosophy of language related to the problem of dialogue; from the Sociology of words to Metalinguistcs; and, finally, the relationships between Metalinguistics and Linguistics. The results of the research point to a reinsertion of Metalinguistics in Bakhtin’s current studies as an important context for the dialogical analysis of language.

A poesia de Paulo Leminski (1944/1989), escrita no Brasil entre os anos 60 e 80 do século XX, revela uma constante atitude de experimentação que abre caminhos para o questionamento da relação entre pensamento, mundo e linguagem. Ao refazer a trajetória do autor e analisar o modo de criação de seus jogos de linguagem, pretendo revelar a lógica de sua poética, voltada para a materialidade do signo lingüístico. Como poeta e ficcionista, redator publicitário, letrista de música, crítico e tradutor, a matériaprima e o objeto de Leminski é sempre a linguagem verbal em suas mais variadas dimensões. Nesse período, entre os anos 60 e 80, em que as teorias sobre os signos e sobre o discurso começam a dominar os estudos literários, a poética metalingüística e reflexiva de Leminski surge como um campo de experiência de limites ainda não testados ou pouco testados por outros poetas. O conceito da poesia como texto literário, como expressão de uma linguagem escrita, veiculada em livros e destinada a um público erudito, passa a ser também por ele questionado. Para Leminski, a poesia faz parte da semiótica, do mundo dos signos que engloba todas as outras formas de manifestações artísticas, de informação e de comunicação. Poesia é também linguagem gráfica, sonora e verbal, que busca uma lógica própria para expressar pensamentos e formas de vida. Esta pesquisa vai focalizar alguns aspectos da teoria da linguagem e da teoria literária evidenciados, em diversos níveis, na prática poética leminskiana. São questões pertinentes ao contexto de diferentes correntes contemporâneas de pensamento que apontam a linguagem como o lugar privilegiado em que se dá a atuação do sujeito e a criação dos sentidos. / The poetry of Paulo Leminski (1944-89), written in Brazil between the 1960s and the 1980s, displays a constant attitude of experimentation that opens up possibilities for questioning the relationships between thought, world and language. By retracing the development of his career as a writer and analyzing the ways in which he created his language games, I set out to discover the logic of his poetics and its links to the materiality of the linguistic sign. As a poet and author of fiction, but also as a producer of advertising copy, song lyrics, literary criticism and translations, Leminski always took verbal language in its many different dimensions as his object and raw material. In the period discussed (1960s, 70s and 80s), when theories of signs and discourse predominated in literary studies, Leminski developed his metalinguistic and reflexive poetics as a field for experiencing and experimenting with limits that other poets had not yet tested at all or only very marginally. He also questioned the concept of poetry as literary text, as the expression of a written language conveyed in books to a learned audience. For Leminski poetry was part of semiotics, of the world of signs that encompasses all other forms of art as well as information and communication. Poetry is visual language and sound as well as verbal language, pursuing its own logic to express thoughts and life forms. My research focuses on some aspects of the theory of language and of the literary theory evinced at various levels by Leminskis poetic practice. The questions raised are pertinent in the context of different contemporary currents of thought which consider language a privileged field for the operation of the subject and the creation of meaning.

Os projetos filosóficos desenvolvidos por Wittgenstein, em seu Tractatus Logico- Philosophicus, e por Kant, em sua Crítica da Razão Pura, possuem uma estrutura e objetivos semelhantes. Ambos consistem em um ataque a determinadas pretensões da filosofia com base em uma investigação dos nossos meios de representação da realidade. Tais paralelos foram notados por alguns autores, que, por conseguinte, realizam uma aproximação entre as duas obras. A presente tese pretende aprofundar a discussão acerca da proximidade entre elas com base em um ponto que, segundo é do nosso conhecimento, ainda não foi suficientemente explorado. Partindo da ideia de que os dois projetos estão apoiados em suas respectivas teorias da representação e de que estas consistem em uma explicação da relação entre representação e realidade representada, realizaremos uma comparação acerca do modo como os dois filósofos concebem a natureza dessa relação. Mais especificamente, investigaremos se o Tractatus pode ser aproximado à Crítica também no que diz respeito à tese kantiana de que os objetos devem se conformar às condições necessárias dos meios de que dispomos para representá-los, tese esta que caracteriza a chamada Revolução Copernicana de Kant. Defenderemos que esse exame coincide com a consideração de um debate entre duas linhas interpretativas conflitantes presentes na literatura secundária do Tractatus, as quais denominaremos realista e antirrealista. Segundo a primeira, as teses tractarianas acerca das propriedades essenciais e necessárias da realidade dizem respeito a um domínio que deve ser concebido como, em algum sentido, independente da linguagem que o representa. Por outro lado, a segunda sustenta que tais propriedades essenciais e necessárias pertenceriam à realidade apenas na medida em que ela é representada pela linguagem, não sendo, portanto, independentes desta. Procuraremos mostrar que uma leitura antirrealista do Tractatus acaba por atribuir à obra uma concepção acerca da relação entre linguagem e realidade essencialmente análoga àquela que resulta dos princípios básicos da Revolução Copernicana de Kant, ao passo que, da perspectiva de uma leitura realista, o Tractatus seria completamente avesso a esses mesmos princípios básicos. A partir de um exame e de uma comparação entre as teorias kantiana e tractariana de representação, defenderemos uma leitura realista do Tractatus, e, por conseguinte, tentaremos mostrar que ele se afasta da Crítica no que diz respeito à sua Revolução Copernicana. Com isso, mais do que avaliar em que medida os projetos kantiano e tractariano podem efetivamente ser aproximados, esperamos mostrar que algumas das ideias e noções que são próprias da filosofia teórica de Kant podem ser utilizadas para iluminar certas questões levantadas no debate entre as leituras realista e antirrealista do Tractatus, sobretudo questões referentes à relação, desenvolvida no interior do sistema tractariano, entre forma lógica e ontologia. / The philosophical projects developed by Wittgenstein, in his \"Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus\", and by Kant, in his \"Critique of Pure Reason\", have similar structures and goals. Both consist in an attack on certain pretensions of philosophy based on an inquiry about the means we dispose to represent reality. Such parallels and affinities have been noticed by some authors in the secondary literature. The present thesis intends to deepen the debate on the proximity between these two works by focusing on an issue which, according to my knowledge, has not yet been sufficiently explored. Starting from the ideia that both of these projects are based on its respective theories of representation and that the latter consist in an explanation of the relation between representation and the represented reality, we will realize a comparison about how both philosophers conceive of the nature of such relation. More specifically, we will inquire whether the Tractatus is also akin to the Critique with respect to the Kantian thesis that objects must conform to the necessary conditions of our means of representing them, i.e. the thesis which characterizes the so-called Kants \"Copernican Revolution\". We will argue that such an inquiry coincides with an examination of a debate between two conflicting lines of interpretation present in the secondary literature about the Tractatus, which we will refer to as \"realist\" and \"antirealist\". According to the former, the Tractarian theses about the necessary and essential properties of reality are theses about a domain which should be conceived of as in some sense independent of the language that represents it. On the other hand, the latter entails the ideia that such necessary and essential properties belong to reality only insofar as it is represented by language, and should not, therefore, be conceived of as independent of it. We will attempt to show that an antirealist reading of the Tractatus ends up ascribing to the work a conception about the relation between language and reality which is essentially analogous to that which follows from the basic principles of the so-called \"Kant\'s Copernican Revolution\", while from the perspective of a realist reading the Tractatus would be completely alien to such basic principles. By means of an examination of and a comparison between the Kantian and the Tractarian theories of representation, we will defend a realist reading of the Tractatus and therefore attempt to show that it distances itself from the Critique when it comes to the latters \"Copernican Revolution\". By doing this, more than evaluate to what extent the Kantian and the Tractarian philosophical projects really are close to each other, we expect to show that some of the ideas and notions which are proper to Kant\'s theoretical philosophy may be used to shed light on certain questions which are raised in the debate between the realist and antirealist readings of the Tractatus, above all questions concerning the relation, developed within the Tractarian system, between logical form and ontology.

Orientador: Clélia Aparecida Martins / Banca: José Carlos Bruni / Banca: Alberto Marcos Onate / Resumo: Procuramos delimitar o âmbito de interação do humano com a realidade a partir da teoria lingüística expressa no Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus e nas Investigações Filosóficas. A partir da identificação deste âmbito ontológico-lingüístico da ação humana, representadas pela tríade agir/sentir/pensar, demonstraremos como a linguagem representa a realidade a partir da afiguração. Através de contextualizações e aproximações das teorias wittgensteinianas com noções filosóficas tradicionais busca-se demonstrar a inovação do método wittgensteiniano e suas possibilidades de aplicação ao exercício filosófico contemporâneo. / Abstract: We have tried to delimit the ambit of the human's interaction with the reality starting from the linguistic theory expresses in Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus and in the Philosophical Investigations. Starting from the identification of this ontological-linguistic ambit of the human action, represented by the triad to act/to feel/to think, we will demonstrate as the language it represents the reality starting from the representation. Through contextualize and approaches of the Wittgenstein's theories with the traditional philosophical notions, we aim for to demonstrate the innovation of the Wittgenstein's method and your application possibilities to the contemporary philosophical exercise. / Mestre

O estudo teórico da obra de Bakhtin e seu Círculo demanda um aprofundamento em vários contextos: um estudo historiográfico da obra em relação ao contexto russo de sua produção; um estudo comparativo das traduções em que a obra, escrita originariamente em russo, circula e é interpretada no Ocidente; e a busca de uma, entre múltiplas entradas na obra, que nos permita avançar nos seus estudos da linguagem. Neste trabalho, recuperamos fragmentos da construção de uma ciência da linguagem - a Metalingüística -, comparando duas obras de 1929 - Marxismo e Filosofia da Linguagem (Volochinov) e Problemas da obra de Dostoiévski (Bakhtin) - com a segunda edição do livro de Bakhtin sobre Dostoiévski - Problemas da poética de Dostoiévski (1963), onde Bakhtin menciona pela primeira vez, publicamente, essa nova ciência. Essa comparação revelou que já nos livros de 1929, o objeto da Metalingüística - as relações dialógicas e a palavra bivocal - estavam propostos; e que há uma transição de uma Filosofia marxista da linguagem e uma Sociologia da palavra, nos primeiros, para a Metalingüística. Na primeira parte da tese, levantamos alguns aspectos gerais da obra tais como: 1) as relações das fontes primárias com o contexto histórico russo; e 2) alguns problemas de tradução de categorias relacionados com o nosso tema. A segunda parte, trata da evolução do problema do diálogo na própria construção da Metalingüística e de sua orientação filosófica, a partir dos seguintes contextos: a Filosofia marxista da linguagem (Volochinov) em relação com o problema do diálogo; as relações entre a Sociologia da palavra e a Metalingüística; e, por último, as relações da Metalingüística com a Lingüística. Os resultados da pesquisa apontam para uma reinserção da Metalingüística nos estudos bakhtinianos atuais, como uma entrada importante para a análise dialógica da linguagem. / The theoretical research of Bakhtin and his circle’s works require an indepth study of various contexts: a historiographical study in relation to the Russian context of its production; a comparative study of translations in which the work, written originally in the Russian language, circulate and is interpreted; and the demand of a context, among the multiple entries in that work, which allowed us to go further in their study of language. In this work, we recover some fragments of Bakhtin’s science of language, that is, Metalinguistics, comparing two works from 1929 - Marxism and Philosophy of Language (Voloshinov) and Problems of Dostoevsky’s Art (Bakhtin) - with the second version of Bakhtin’s book on Dostoevsky - Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics (1963), where for the first time Bakhtin mentions this new science. The comparison reveals that in the 1929’s works the object of Metalinguistics - dialogical relationship and double-voiced word - was already proposed, and that there is a transition from the first two works to the second, from a Marxist philosophy of language and Sociology of words to Metalinguistics. In the first part of the thesis, we show some general aspects of the work such as: 1) the relationships between the primary database and the Russian historical context and 2) some problems of translation of categories related to our theme. The second part, tries to show the evolution of the problem of dialogue in the construction of Metalinguistcs and its philosophical orientation on the following contexts: Marxist philosophy of language related to the problem of dialogue; from the Sociology of words to Metalinguistcs; and, finally, the relationships between Metalinguistics and Linguistics. The results of the research point to a reinsertion of Metalinguistics in Bakhtin’s current studies as an important context for the dialogical analysis of language.