Semantics and Pragmatics in Psycho-Physiological Context

Abstract

For many theoretical linguists and applied logicians, model theoretic semantics à la Montague, Cresswell a. o. seems to represent the most advanced stage of the theory of semantics and pragmatics. But it should be clear that this theory remains in the context of realistic semantic theories, as v. Kutschera has called them. Such theories “interpret meaning as a conventional relationship between signs and concrete or conceptual entities which exist independently of the linguistic signs” (v. Kutschera, 1975, p. 19). These theories may still be called realistic theories even if they no longer assume, as in the classical position, that the meaning of a linguistic expression does not depend on conditions of use. In fact, modern model theoretic analyses can account for the variations dependent on conditions of use. The pragmatic account of the context is, however, “realistically” semanticized.