philosophy of language
I have been thinking about a question that I would have expected to have been discussed, but I haven't come across much.
We are told that a theory of meaning for a language is important because it illuminates the question of how speakers can encounter a novel sentence and work out what it means.
Textbooks in semantics often start with this motivation. I have taught the topic this way too.
What about the task for the speaker of selecting the right sentence?
philosophy of language
Pagin and Westerståhl discuss Pagin's argument.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-9991.2009.00228.x
philosophy of language
And here:
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-9991.2009.00229.x