ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the experimental results in experimental semantics, the controversies they have led to, and the theoretical, experimental, and methodological advances that have resulted. It reviews the original findings reported in Machery, Mallon, Nichols, and Stich and the efforts to replicate and extend them. The chapter discusses the contrast between people’s judgments about the reference of a proper name and their judgments about what a speaker intends to refer to when using a proper name. It reviews the literature contrasting the use of proper names with judgments about what proper names refer to. The chapter examines a philosophical implication of experimental semantics. Machery, Olivola, and de Blanc responded to Martí’s challenge by comparing truth-value and reference judgments.
