Word and Object: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 15:27, 14 July 2019

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===Acquiring reference===

In order to learn a language, a child has to learn how the language expresses reference grammatically. Quine presents a behavioral theory in which the child acquires language through a process of [[operant conditioning|conditioning]] and ostension.<ref>Murphey, M. ''The Development of Quine’s Philosophy''. Springer, 2011. Web. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science. p. 163</ref> This process consists of four phases.<ref>Quine, Willard Van Orman, ''Word and Object'' [1960]. New edition, with a foreword by Patricia Churchland, Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2015, pp. 98-100</ref> In the first phase the child starts babbling. This behavior gets rewarded or not, dependent on the situation in which it occurs. Terms are learned by a process of reinforcement and extinction. In this phase, the child is not aware yet of objects, it just reacts to stimulations. This is a form of [[operant conditioning]]. In the second phase, the child acquires ''general terms'', and ''demonstrative singular terms'' (this, that) and ''singular description'', sentences that name (or purport to name) only one object. In this phase the child also learns terms that do not have reference, like ‘unicorn’. Furthermore, the child learns divided reference of general terms (that general terms refer to more than one object), and with that it has access to a conceptual scheme that includes ‘enduring and recurring objects’.<ref>Quine, Willard Van Orman, ''Word and Object'' [1960]. New edition, with a foreword by Patricia Churchland, Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2015, p. 86</ref> With this, the child has acquired the important distinction between singular and general terms. This distinction entails that a singular term 'purports to refer to one object' while a general term does not purports to refer to an object.<ref name="Quine, Willard Van Orman 2015, p. 87">Quine, Willard Van Orman, ''Word and Object'' [1960]. New edition, with a foreword by Patricia Churchland, Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2015, p. 87</ref> As Quine points out: 'The basis combination in which general and singular terms find their contrasting roles is that of ''predication''.'<ref name="Quine, Willard Van Orman 2015, p. 87"/> Predication combines general terms with singular terms, in a sentence that is true or false just as the general term (‘F’) is true or false of the object to which the singular term (‘a’) refers. Predication is thus logically represented as ‘Fa’. In the third phase, the child learns ''composite general terms'', which are formed by joining two general terms. In the fourth phase, the child learns how to talk about new objects. The child can now apply ''relative terms'' to singular or general terms. A relative term is a term that is true of two (or more) objects in relation to each other, like ‘bigger than’. The child can now make use of terms that refer to objects that cannot be seen, for example ‘smaller than that speck’ to refer to a neutrino.<ref>Quine, Willard Van Orman, ''Word and Object'' [1960]. New edition, with a foreword by Patricia Churchland, Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2015, p. 100</ref> This phase thus gives a new dimension to the child's conceptual scheme.

===Vagaries of reference and referential transparency===