On the Plurality of Tongues

Cameron Domenico Kirk-Giannini (Rutgers University - Newark)

Careful consideration of the relationship between the horizontal and diagonal propositions of an utterance shows that David Lewis's attempt to ground sentential meaning in linguistic conventions of truthfulness and trust cannot succeed: given Lewis's theoretical commitments, the facts about convention to which he appeals are in principle unable to distinguish between different languages which make the same predictions about when speakers will be disposed to produce utterances.