Linguistic Conventions

Abstract

What are linguistic conventions? This chapter begins by noting and setting aside philosophical accounts of social conventions stemming from Lewis’s influential treatment. It then criticizes accounts that see conventions as explicit stipulations. From there the chapter argues that conventions are syntactic rules of inference, arguing that there are scientific reasons to posit these rules as part of our linguistic competence and that we need to include both bilateralist and open-ended inference rules for a full account. The back half of the chapter aims to naturalize inference rule-following by providing functionalist-dispositionalist approaches to our attitudes, inference, and inference-rule–following, addressing Kripkenstein’s arguments and several other concerns along the way.