The concept of attribution in Roderick Chisholm and the evolution of language

This study examines Roderick Chisholm's theory of reference, developed based on the concept of attribution, within the context of analytic philosophy of language and language evolution. In contrast to Quine's naturalized semantics, Chisholm argues that attribution, a non-linguistic, intentional act, lies at the foundation of reference. While for Quine linguistic reference is a socially-acquired behavioral act , Chisholm grounds reference in the subject's intentionality. Attribution is the act of the subject directly ascribing a property to itself or indirectly to others through an identifying relation. Pronouns such as I, This, or You, and proper names are the linguistic counterparts of these two different stages of attribution. The final section of the thesis applies Chisholm's theory of objective reference to discussions of language evolution and argues that rather than being a simple communication system tightly bound to context, the original language began with the primacy of I and displacement.