The Meaning Of Language  
Robert M. Martin
The MIT Press
Philosophy of language is one of the hardest areas for the beginning                 student; it is full of difficult questions technical arguments, and jargon. Written                 in a straightforward and explanatory way and filled with examples, this text                 provides a comprehensive introduction to the field, suitable for students with no                 background in the philosophy of language or formal logic.The eleven chapters in the                 book's first part take up a variety of matters connected to questions about what                 language is for - what meaning has to do with people's ideas and intentions, and                 with social communication. Included are chapters on the innateness controversy, the                 private language argument, the possibility of animal and machine language, language                 as rule-governed or conventional behavior, and the speech act theory.In the second                 part, thirteen chapters concentrate on what language is about; treating sense and                 reference, extensionality, truth conditions, and the theories of proper names,                 definite descriptions, indexicals, general terms, and psychological                 attributions.Many recent books and courses in the philosophy of language treat the                 issues and approaches covered in the first or second part of this book; however,                 this is the first time they are presented together (although either part may be read                 and/or taught independently). The book's style is pedagogic, not polemical. It shows                 students how much has been accomplished by philosophers of language in this century                 while making them keenly aware of the fundamental controversies that remain.Robert                 Martin is an associate professor of philosophy at Dalhousie University in Halifax,                 Nova Scotia. A Bradford Book.