Términos numéricos

Abstract

The meaning of number terms is the object of an ongoing debate in linguistics, pragmatics and the philosophy of language. In this paper I defend a contextualist view where I suggest that rather than being a full fledged concept, the semantics of a number term is a conventional trigger that activates a conceptual area that contains the concepts it can be used to express. The interpretations that a number term can receive are given by an interaction of the logical form of the utterance where it appears, the conceptual area activated by its use, and the search for optimal relevance. This proposal explains some linguistic and empirical evidence that other views cannot account for.