论句子最小语义与意义整体论的兼容:公孙龙“‘马’者所以命形也”命题的启示

On Compatibility of Minimal Semantic Content of Sentence with Meaning Holism: Inspiration from Gongsun Long's Proposition that "'Horse' is what we use to name a Form"

针对语境主义关于语义只有相对于具体语境才可确定的观点,语义最小论提出任何句子都具有跨语境的最小语义内容,即由组成词项按句法规则组合而成的意义。但这一理论要成立的话,就必须回应语义整体论的挑战,即单个词、句不是承载意义的单位,其意义的解释取决于人的整个信念体系。不过,意义整体论与语义最小论并不冲突;前者关于思想,而后者关于语言。词、句的意义完全可以在与意义整体论兼容的情况下做出确定性说明,对此公孙龙关于"‘马’者所以命形也"的思想具有重要的启发意义。

Contrary to the contextualists who hold that language meaning is determinable only relative to specific contexts,the semantic minimalists insist that a sentence has a cross-context semantic content,formed according to the compositionality principle.However,if the latter theory is to be established,it must answer the challenge from meaning holism,the philosophical idea that neither a word nor a sentence bears meanings,the explanation of which depends on the entire system of beliefs people have.This paper argues that meaning holism and semantic minimalism are not opposite to each other,since the former is concerned with mind while the latter language.The meaning of a word or a sentence can be given and ascertained,while remaining compatible with holism.This paper has been inspired by ancient Chinese philosopher Gongsun Long,who proposed that“‘Horse’is what we use to name a Form”,an insight into the nature of word meaning.