What is philosophy of language?
Q: What is philosophy of language?
A: Philosophy of language is the study of how languages were created and are used, and it is part of Linguistics.
Q: Who placed particular stress on philosophy of language?
A: Ludwig Wittgenstein and other analytic philosophers placed particular stress on philosophy of language.
Q: What are some central questions in philosophy of language?
A: Some central questions in philosophy of language are: What does it mean for a word to mean something? Why do some words have the same meaning? How can we ever know if a word means something or not? Why are some orderings of words meaningful, while others are not? How are languages learnt? How do they change? How important are languages in communication? How do we translate from one language into another? What does truth have to do with language?
Q: Who was the first philosopher interested in philosophy of language?
A: Plato was the first philosopher we know was interested in philosophy of language, although his teacher Socrates probably was too.
Q: What did Plato believe about the smallest parts of words?
A: Plato believed that the smallest parts of words (phonemes) had meaning even if they were outside the words they are in, although this is not a very good theory.
Q: When did philosophy of language become more popular?
A: Philosophy of language only became more popular in the twentieth century, when Ferdinand de Saussure wrote his book Course in general linguistics.
Q: What role has philosophy of language played in philosophy as a whole?
A: Philosophy of language has played an important part in philosophy as a whole.
