Semantic Under-determinacy and Conceptual Constraints (Towards a Proposal about Lexical Meaning)

Abstract

In this paper, I focus on some examples of semantic under-determinacy, which give rise to the view that language involves some kind of context-sensitivity.
Jason Stanley and others have argued that such context-sensitivity could be traced to the terms’ syntax, or logical form. I offer an argument against this contention and defend a view in which context-sensitivity is traced to purely conceptual (semantic) constraints. I then explore the implications of this view on a conception of lexical meaning, urging that we should embrace a form of molecularism about the semantics of words.