ABSTRACT
This chapter surveys a range of views about the aim of semantics and the nature of semantic fact, with an eye toward some relevant disputes about the nature of context and context sensitivity. It begins by setting out some presuppositions of the discussion; and then focuses on the various views of semantics and their consequences for context sensitivity. The treatment of context sensitivity has two main moving parts: the description of an ordered tuple with elements of certain kinds, and the assignment of characters as the semantic values of expressions. Prior to systematic semantic theorizing, there are various semantic concepts: meaning, reference, what is said, truth, and so forth. The Meaning Perspective has it that the job of a semantic theory is to systematize and explain facts about meaning in some pre-theoretical sense. One hypothesis, naturally suggested by the psychological focus, is that semantics gives rules associating linguistic expressions with concepts.
