Griffin Pion

Polysemes are words with multiple, related meanings. Recently, work on polysemy has exploded across philosophy, linguistics, and psychology, largely because it complicates standard views of word meaning. Through a mix of philosophical theorizing and psycholinguistic experiments, this project shows that the consequences of polysemy are even more radical than has been recognized. First, the correct cognitive understanding of polysemy also challenges standard views of mental concepts. The upshot is that people can have thoughts with indeterminate contents. Second, the cognitive mechanisms underlying polysemy can partially explain the intractability of current disagreements in public discourse, and in doing so, give us tools to find more common ground.