What question did this study set out to answer?

To examine how identity confusion impacts convention-based meta-semantics, particularly in language use.

May 14, 2026Canadian Journal of Philosophy0 citationsOpen Access

Confusion and Convention

AAAtheer Al-KhalfaAustralian Catholic University

Key Points

To examine how identity confusion impacts convention-based meta-semantics, particularly in language use.
Analysis of David Lewis’s account of convention and its applicability to language use.
Evaluation of Paul Grice’s framework for sentence meaning in the context of identity confusion.
Identified inadequacies in Lewis's account that fail to differentiate between candidate languages.
Observed that Grice's approach to sentence meaning also struggles with the implications of identity confusion.

Abstract

Abstract Cases of identity confusion raise a challenge for convention-based meta-semantics. David Lewis’s influential account of convention, as it applies to language use, fails to distinguish, among two candidate languages, the one used by the population in question. The problem extends to Paul Grice’s influential account of sentence meaning.

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