Context-Sensitive Truth-Theoretic Accounts of Semantic Competence

Abstract:  According to cognitivist truth-theoretic accounts of semantic competence, aspects of our linguistic behavior can be explained by ascribing to speakers cognition of truth-theories. It's generally assumed on this approach that, however much context-sensitivity speakers’ languages contain, the cognized truth-theories themselves can be adequately characterized context-insensitively—that is, without using in the meta-language expressions whose semantic value can vary across occasions of utterance. In this paper, I explore some of the motivations for and problems and consequences of dropping this assumption.