Subjectivity and Perspective in Truth-Theoretic Semantics

This book explores linguistic and philosophical issues presented by sentences expressing personal taste such as <em>Roller coasters are fun</em> or <em>Licorice is tasty</em>. Standard semantic theories explain the meanings of sentences by specifying the conditions under which they are true; here Peter Lasersohn asks how we can account for sentences that are concerned with matters of opinion rather than matters of fact. He argues that a truth-theoretic semantic theory is appropriate even for sentences like these but that for such sentences truth and falsity must be assigned relative to perspectives rather than absolutely. The book provides a detailed and explicit formal grammar working out the implications of this conception of truth both for simple sentences and for reports of mental attitude. The semantic analysis is paired with a pragmatic theory explaining what it means to assert a sentence which is true or false only relativistically and with a speculative account of the functional<br>motivation for a relativized notion of truth.<br>