Abstract

I present a new theory of utterance understanding – the target state of utterance interpretation. According to this theory, utterance understanding is a distinctively normative species of ‘objectual understanding’. Objectual understanding is the epistemic state we occupy when we understand a subject matter such as an event or process.

On my view, utterance understanding consists in grasping the normative significance of an utterance qua event. I call the resultant picture of interpretation the ‘normative sense-making view’. The normative sense-making view stands in contrast to what I call the ‘interrogative inquiry’ approach. According to the interrogative inquiry view interpretation is inquiry targeted at the question ‘what does the utterance mean’. 

On standard pictures of inquiry the interrogative model entails that utterance understanding consists in knowledge of meaning. I will illustrate the normative sense-making view via a comparison to the interrogative view and its accompanying knowledge-based theory of understanding.