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Queen's University

PhD (Philosophy) UCLA 1992, MA (Philosophy) UCLA 1983.
C.Phil (Linguistics) UCLA 1990, MA (Linguistics) UCLA 1988.
Professor of Philosophy (cross-appointed to Linguistics), Queen's University in Kingston, Canada since 1992.
Visiting Professor, University of Barcelona, LOGOS: Logic, Language and Cognition Research Group, 2002-03.
Visiting Professor/Scholar (seasonal) at UCLA: Dept of Linguistics 1995-99, Dept of Philosophy 1992-97.
Research Affiliate at (the former) CREA: Centre de Recherche en Epistémologie Appliquée, Paris, 1991-93.
Post-Doc at Stanford University, CSLI: Center for Study of Language and Information, 1992-93.

Interests

My work is informed by theoretical linguistics, specifically by the approach to the study of language developed by Chomsky. I engage influential views in philosophy of language and mind and argue that some fail to satisfy criteria of adequacy required of sustainable conceptions of the relation between speakers and their language. Though critical of much current philosophical externalism (especially that concerning the relationship between the content of our minds and our connection to a linguistic community), I also engage influential views in linguistics and argue that some fail to appreciate important lessons drawn from externalist considerations of the last half century. My work is informed also by logic and by formal semantics (broadly speaking, Montague Grammar), as well as by natural language semantics. In applying philosophy of language to current social and political issues, this work tends to have a deontic component which I greatly value. I am currently at work on a book about what a language is (if there is such a thing) and what makes linguistic sense (if anything) in the notion of a linguistic community.

Selection of Publications

1998: On Communication-Based De Re Thought, Commitments De Dicto, and Word-Individuation, Philosophy and Linguistics (ed. R. Stainton), Westview Press (37 ms. pages).
1996: A Perverse Case of the Contingent A Priori: On the Logic of Emasculating Language (A Reply to Dawkins and Dummett). Philosophical Topics (special ed. S. Haslanger), Arkansas University Press (52 ms. pages).
1994: Consumerism and Language Acquisition, Linguistics and Philosophy, Vol.17, No 5 (29 ms pages)
1993: Normativism and the Mental: A Problem of Language Individuation, Philosophical Studies, Vol.72, No 1 (25 ms pages)

Curriculum Vitae

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On-line papers

There are on-line papers available from Adèle Mercier's personal homepage

Contact

E-mail.  merciera AT post.queensu.ca

Other personal homepages

Click here to access Adèle Mercier's personal homepage