Plurivaluationism, Semantic Nondeterminism and Communication
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Broadly, this paper is about how communication -- the
exchange of information -- is possible when the words used
are not known to have particular meanings.  More
specifically, the paper contrasts two views in the
literature of what happens when semantic values are
constrained to a range without a particular member of the
range being determined as the uniquely correct value.  One
view -- semantic nondeterminism -- holds that a single,
unique value is chosen nondeterministically.  The other view
-- plurivaluationism -- holds that all the values are in
play simultaneously.  The paper argues for the superiority
of the plurivaluationist view -- in the context of modelling
vague language -- by first arguing that Stalnaker's account
of conversation and communication breaks down in a semantic
nondeterminist setting, and second showing how to develop a
version of this account that works in a plurivaluationist
setting.  The paper thus provides a pragmatic story about
communication to complement the existing plurivaluationist
semantic theory.