New applications of the directival theory of meaning

Pawel Grabarczyk (University of Lodz)

Call for Participation
AP in V4 Lecture Series — Analytic Philosophy in Visegrad Countries

Date: 8th January 2026, 3 PM (CET)
Format: Online lecture

Organised by: Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia, University of Ostrava, Czech Republic, University of Warsaw, Poland, with the support of Visegrad Fund
Project website: https://ff.osu.eu/ap-in-v4/

Paweł Grabarczyk (IT University in Copenhagen)
Title: New applications of the directival theory of meaning

Abstract:
The Directival Theory of Meaning (DTM from now on) is a pioneering
form of functional-role semantics devised by the Polish philosopher Kazimierz
Ajdukiewicz in the 1930s. Despite some groundbreaking ideas, the theory was
never fully developed by its author and remained a historical curiosity. In 2019,
I published a book that shows how the original theory can be expanded so that
it transcends Ajdukiewicz’s initial vision and applies to natural languages. In the
book’s conclusion, I suggested two additional applications of the theory that
may be of interest to contemporary philosophers. The rst of these applicati-
ons is treating the DTM as a theory of literary ction. The second is treating the
DTM as a basis for a theory of knowledge for Articial Intelligence.
In my talk, I begin by providing the basics of the DTM that are necessary to
understand these expansions. Next, I explain how the theory can be used
to account for discourses about ctional entities and how it may prove useful
for building new AI models, in particular explainable AI. 

About the Speaker

Paweł Grabarczyk is an Associate Professor at the IT University of Copenhagen, where he is part of Play, Culture, and AI and serves as Head of the Games Research Group, affiliated with the Center for Digital Play and the Center for Computing Education Research. He works primarily in philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, game studies, and semantics, with a special focus on Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz’s Directival Theory of Meaning and functional-role approaches to meaning.

He is the author of Directival Theory of Meaning: From Syntax and Pragmatics to Narrow Linguistic Content (Springer, 2019), which offers the first systematic treatment of the Directival Theory of Meaning in English and develops a novel framework combining syntactic, pragmatic, and narrow-content considerations.  Beyond his work on meaning and concepts, he has also published on topics in game studies and the philosophy of games, including research on game jams and how games can engage with “heavy” or anxiety-inducing topics, as well as on issues at the intersection of AI, explanation, and digital design.

More information: https://pure.itu.dk/en/persons/pawel-grabarczyk/ 

If you are interested to join, please contact [email protected]