This introduction to the philosophy of language in Continuum's key concepts series aims to provide a concise and accessible overview suitable for undergraduates without a prior background in the area. Over the course of six chapters the author sets out a broad conception of the subject by providing a wide-ranging survey covering not only philosophical works, but also theories from linguistics, psychology, and sociology. The first chapter examines how language functions in communication between speakers. Medina describes a traditional model of communication, originally presented by Karl Buhler, which proposes that there are three elements in communication (a sender, recipient, and topic), and three functions (to represent, to express and to make an appeal). Following the linguist Roman Jakobson Medina argues that the theory should be expanded by adding three further elements (the message, the inter-subjective contact between participants, and the code from which the message is composed), and three further functions (the meta-lingual, the phatic, and the poetic). This theory provides a loose structure for the rest of the book. After providing a helpful overview of John Austin's speech act theory, and Gricean semantics, the first chapter closes with a discussion of the distinction between semantics and pragmatics.

Chapter two begins by contrasting designative and expressive traditions in the philosophy of language. Medina illustrates how Frege's theory of sense was introduced to overcome problems associated with a purely designative theory of meaning. Following an outline of Russell's response to this problem, and his theory of descriptions, Strawson and Donnellan's responses to Russell are then reviewed. The chapter ends by contrasting Quine and Davidson's 'neo-empiricist' accounts of translation and interpretation respectively, and Gadamer's hermeneutic approach. In chapter three Medina compares Quine and Wittgenstein's views on meaning skepticism, and distinguishes two corresponding accounts of language learning — empiricist and enculturation models. The enculturation model is then developed with reference to the research of the psychologist Michael Tomasello, and the linguist Marysia Johnson. Medina suggests in response to the skeptical arguments that meanings are 'contextually determinate', and illustrates what this means by appeal to research in conversation analysis.

In the fourth chapter Medina turns to consider linguistic creativity which in Jakobson's theory would be described in terms of the poetic and meta-lingual functions of communication. He distinguishes theories which account for linguistic creativity by appeal to an infinite generative capacity that operates on the compositional structure of language — this he refers to as the structuralist or formalist tradition, and an account of the factors influencing 'the ability to come up with appropriate utterances for concrete speech situations never encountered before' (113) which is presented by the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. Another type of linguistic creativity emerges in consideration of theories of metaphor, and the chapter ends with a discussion of Davidson's argument against the possibility of alternative conceptual schemes.

Chapter five considers whether language is an essentially social phenomenon. Medina introduces the debate between Davidson and Dummett on the question of whether an idiolect (the language of a particular speaker), or a common language should be the basic subject matter of a theory of meaning. Wittgenstein's private language argument is then discussed and compared to the conclusions Derrida draws from his analysis of the 'structural repeatability' of signs. In the final chapter Medina considers 'how we are formed as subjects in and through language' (167) by outlining Althusser's notion of interpellation and developments of this account by Pierre Bordieu, Judith Butler and himself. The book concludes by stressing the importance of keeping cultural dialogues diverse and heterogeneous.

A short review cannot adequately convey the development of these topics, and their connections which are presented in this compact discussion. However, this leads to the main weakness inherent in the book — that is, the author's own views, and equally some of the other referenced works receive a rather summary treatment and so it would be unsuitable to use as a course textbook. The book may however prove to be a useful supplement to the core readings which form the backbone of Medina's discussion, and the detailed index and suggestions for further reading will be valuable tools for students setting out to explore this broad landscape.

© 2007 Michael Fenton

Michael Fenton is a PhD student at Warwick University.

Categories: Philosophical