The Problem Of Interface Between Semantics And Pragmatics

In this thesis I discuss mainly the interface between semantics and pragmatics.The interface problem is caused by the phenomenon of semantic under-determinacy.Borg's minimalism is the claim that the meaning of a sentence is completely independent of its context.I will criticize this claim.The view of this paper is referential contextualism,which has two main points: first,the interface between semantics and pragmatics is integrated,that is,the semantic content of a sentence needs both relevant semantic theory and partial contextual theory;second,we need to know the context if we want to know the meaning of a sentence,because we must first know the references of the words in the sentence in question.If we insist on referential contextualism,we can explain not only the semantic under-determinacy,but also linguistic systematicity and communication.