Lon li lon lon lon lon — Anti-Realism, Subjectivism, and Truth in toki pona

Jonathan Jiayi Tan

(The event this talk is a part of is not uploaded to PhilEvents as it is more broadly related to linguistics than strictly philosophy; time given is in UTC)

Abstract
In this talk I discuss concepts from Philosophy of Language and Epistemology to reason about minimalist languages, focusing on toki pona. Following a brief introduction of theories of meaning, I argue that minimalist languages' expressivity is supported by anti-realist theories of meaning and that minimalist languages pose issues for Kripke's Wittgenstein's sceptic solution to the Rule-Following Paradox. I then discuss applications of the above arguments for pedagogy of minimalist languages with emphasis on toki pona's sociolinguistic and pragmatic practices. I conclude with a short discussion on theories of meaning and alethic locutions in toki pona, followed by a cursory introduction to the philosophical background of presuppositions, presupposition accommodation, and presupposition repair and their applications to the pragmatics of minimalist languages.