The project’s main outcome is the development of a theory of complete linguistic signs and the demonstration that this theory offers a novel solution to central problems in the foundations of speech act theory. Building on and critically revising Ruth G. Millikan’s biological model of language, the project argues that a complete linguistic sign consists of an uttered linguistic expression embedded in a locally stable natural sign that provides its environmental context. On this basis, the project advances an externalist account of linguistic underdeterminacy, according to which semantic properties arise only relative to such contextual supplementation, and treats linguistic competence as a natural extension of more basic semiotic capacities.
The theory is applied to two long-standing debates: the ontological nature of speech acts and the relation between semantics and pragmatics. It is shown that the opposition between Austinian and Gricean approaches rests on an unwarranted assumption of homogeneity among illocutionary act types. By rejecting this assumption and treating illocutionary force as a classificatory notion tied to conventional lineages of complete signs, the project explains the limited but genuine applicability of both approaches.
The proposed framework also reconciles externalist contextualism with an internalist, literalist conception of communicative competence, yielding an unexpected theoretical result. The findings were in a habilitation monograph, journal articles, conference presentations, and invited lectures.
Project-related publications
Monograph
- Witek, M., Spór o podstawy teorii czynności mowy (The Dispute over the Foundations of Speech Act Theory), Szczecin: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Szczecińskiego 2011 (Seria Umysł. Prace z Filozofii i Kognitywistyki). https://doi.org/10.18276/978-83-7972-854-1
Papers
- Witek, M., A Contextualist Account of the Linguistic Reality. In: J. Odrowąż-Sypniewska (Ed.), Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science at Warsaw University, vol. 4, Warszawa: Semper 2008, 59-80.
- Witek, M., Scepticism about reflexive intentions refuted. Lodz Papers in Pragmatics, 5(1), 2009, 69-83. https://doi.org/10.2478/v10016-009-0005-y
- Witek, M., Naturalizing Illocutionary Rules. In: M. Miłkowski and K. Talmont-Kaminski (Eds.), Beyond Description: Naturalism and Normativity, London: College Publications 2010, 243-264.
- Witek, M., O dwóch dylematach dotyczących roli semantyki w badaniach nad językiem (On Two Dilemmas Concerning the Role of Semantics in the Study of Language). In: E. Kochan i P. Ziemski (red.), Oblicza kultury. Człowiek — poznanie — twórczość. Profesor Halinie Perkowskiej w darze, Szczecin: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Szczecińskiego 2008, 185-210.
- Witek, M., Niedookreślenie językowe z punktu widzenia teorii zwrotnych warunków prawdziwości (Linguistic Underdetermination from the Perspective of the Reflexive Truth-Conditional Theory). Filozofia Nauki, 17(3), 2009, 57-97. https://www.fn.uw.edu.pl/index.php/fn/article/view/577