Origins of Meaning: Should We ‘Go Gricean’?

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ID: 338277
2026
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Abstract
Abstract This chapter reintroduces the first hard problem of the origins of meaning. It then presents an approach to addressing the problem inspired by Paul Grice’s Communicative Intentions (CI) account of linguistic meaning. The chapter argues that the CI approach is highly problematic, insofar as it trades the ‘language Rubicon’ for an equally puzzling psychological Rubicon. Reasons are provided for denying that our ancestors had to ‘go Gricean’ before getting on their path to language. The critical evaluation of the CI approach provides motivation for seeking an alternative, non-Gricean—‘intermediate’—approach to our problem, one that is nevertheless designed to accommodate certain insights that drive the CI approach. The chapter concludes by articulating some desiderata for such an approach. A genuinely intermediate approach, it is suggested, ought to appeal to ancestral capacities that are intermediate both communicatively and psychologically. It should only credit our non-linguistic ancestors with brute thoughts—thoughts whose contents do not go beyond the crude meanings of their utterances.
Reference Key
openalex_W7225147866 Use this key to autocite in the manuscript while using SciMatic Manuscript Manager or Thesis Manager
Authors Dorit Bar‐On
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Journal Oxford University Press eBooks
Year 2026
DOI
10.1093/9780191862564.003.0002
URL
https://doi.org/10.1093/9780191862564.003.0002
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