What is meaning? How is linguistic communication possible? What is the nature of language? What is the relationship between language and the world? How do metaphors work? The Philosophy of Language, considered the essential text in its field, is an excellent introduction to such fundamental questions. This revised edition collects forty-eight of the most important articles in the field, making it the most up-to-date and comprehensive volume on the subject. Revised to address changing trends and contemporary developments, the sixth edition features eighteen new articles including influential work by Carl G. Hempel, Nathan Salmon, Saul Kripke, and others. Other selections include classic articles by such distinguished philosophers as J. L. Austin, John Stuart Mill, Hilary Putnam, Bertrand Russell, John R. Searle, and P. F. Strawson. The selections represent evolving and varying approaches to the philosophy of language, with many articles building upon earlier ones or critically discussing them. Eight sections cover the central issues: Names, Descriptions, Ascriptions, Communication, Truth, Analyticity, Indeterminacies, and Language. A general introduction and introductions to each section give students background to the issues and explain the connections between them. A list of suggested further reading follows each section.

Table of Contents:
Each section ends with Suggested Further Reading. ; Note to the Sixth Edition ; Introduction ; I. NAMES ; Of Names (1881) , John Stuart Mill ; On Sense and Reference (1892) , Gottlob Frege ; Proper Names (1958) , John R. Searle ; Naming and Necessity (1972) , Saul Kripke ; Meaning and Reference (1973) , Hilary Putnam ; The Causal Theory of Names (1973) , Gareth Evans ; Frege's Puzzle (1986) Nathan Salmon ; II. DESCRIPTIONS ; On Denoting (1905) , Bertrand Russell ; Descriptions (1919) , Bertrand Russell ; On Referring (1950) , P. F. Strawson ; Mr. Strawson on Referring (1957) , Bertrand Russell ; Reference and Definite Descriptions (1966) , Keith Donnellan ; Speaker's Reference and Semantic Reference (1977) , Saul Kripke ; III. ASCRIPTIONS ; Quantifiers and Propositional Attitudes (1956) , W. V. Quine ; Quantifying In (1968) , David Kaplan ; On Saying That (1968) , Donald Davidson ; Synonymity (1952) , Benson Mates ; A Puzzle about Belief (1979) , Saul Kripke ; The Import of the Puzzle About Belief (1996) , David Sosa ; Belief Ascription (1992) , Stephen Schiffer ; IV. COMMUNICATION ; Meaning (1957) , H.P. Grice ; Performative Utterances (1961) , J. L. Austin ; The Structure of Illocutionary Acts (1969) , John R. Searle ; Logic and Conversation (1975) , H. P. Grice ; Conversational Impliciture (1994) , Kent Bach ; A Nice Derangement of Epitaphs (1985) , Donald Davidson ; V. TRUTH ; The Thought (1918) , Gottlob Frege ; The Semantic Conception of Truth and the Foundations of Semantics (1944) , Alfred Tarski ; Tarski's Theory of Truth (1972) , Hartry Field ; Truth and Meaning (1967) , Donald Davidson ; What is a Theory of Meaning (1975) , M.A.E. Dummett ; VI. ANALYTICITY ; Two Dogmas of Empiricism (1951) , W. V. Quine ; In Defense of a Dogma (1956) , H.P. Grice and P.F. Strawson ; Two Dogmas Revisited (1976) , Hilary Putnam ; VII. IN DETERMINACIES ; Assertion (1978) , Robert Stalnaker ; Demonstratives (1977/89) , David Kaplan ; The Problem of the Essential Indexical (1979) , John Perry ; RULE-FOLLOWING: ; On Rules and Private Language (1982) , Saul Kripke ; The Rule-Following Considerations 91989) , Paul Boghossian ; VAGUENESS: ; Blindspots (1988) , Roy Sorenson ; Vagueness without Paradox (1994) , Diana Raffman ; Shifting Sands: An Interest-Relative Theory of Vagueness (2000) , Delia Graff Fara ; VIII. LANGUAGE ; Of Words (1690) , John Locke ; Philosophical Investigations (1953) , Ludwig Wittgenstein ; Empiricist Criteria of Cognitive Significance (1950) , Carl G. Hemple ; Languages and Language (1975) , David Lewis ; Toward a Causal Theory of Linguistic Representation (1977) , Dennis Stampe ; Language and Problems of Knowledge (1988) , Noam Chomsky