Economics and Language : Five Essays

Cover -- Half-title -- Title -- Copyright -- CONTENTS -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- PART 1 ECONOMICS OF LANGUAGE -- CHAPTER 0 ECONOMICS AND LANGUAGE -- 0.1 Economics and language -- 0.2 Outline of the lectures -- 0.3 One more personal comment -- REFERENCES -- CHAPTER 1 CHOOSING THE SEMANTIC PROPERTIES OF LANGUAGE -- 1.1 Introduction -- 1.2 Indication-friendliness -- 1.3 A detour: splitting a set -- 1.4 Informativeness -- 1.5 Ease of describability -- 1.6 Discussion -- REFERENCES -- CHAPTER 2 EVOLUTION GIVES MEANING TO LANGUAGE -- 2.1 The lack of meaning of words in games -- 2.2 The basic evolutionary argument -- 2.3 The basic situation -- 2.4 Evolutionary forces -- 2.5 Complexity and evolutionary forces -- 2.6 A final comment -- REFERENCES -- CHAPTER 3 STRATEGIC CONSIDERATIONS IN PRAGMATICS -- 3.1 Grice's principles and game theory -- 3.2 Debates -- 3.3 The model -- 3.4 Discussion -- REFERENCES -- PART 2 LANGUAGE OF ECONOMICS -- CHAPTER 4 DECISION MAKING AND LANGUAGE -- 4.1 Introduction -- 4.2 Definable preferences on the basis of binary relations -- 4.3 A girl looks for a boyfriend in a foreign town -- 4.4 Conclusion -- APPENDIX 1 PROOF OF CLAIM 4.1 -- APPENDIX 2 DATING PROFILES -- REFERENCES -- CHAPTER 5 ON THE RHETORIC OF GAME THEORY -- 5.1 Introduction -- 5.2 Strategy -- "Strategy" in daily language -- A strategy in an extensive game -- A mixed strategy in a strategic game -- Does it matter? -- 5.3 The "numbers" illusion -- 5.4 The term "solution" -- 5.5 Final comments -- CONCLUDING REMARKS -- REFERENCES -- PART 3 COMMENTS -- ECONOMICS AND LANGUAGE -- 1 The ubiquity of language -- 2 From description to explanation -- 3 Explaining code -- Why are certain orderings so ubiquitous? -- Explanations for vocabulary -- Discussion -- 4 Explaining speech acts -- 5 Explaining rules -- 6 How does natural language function? -- 7 Terms and formats in game theory.