{"id":6131,"date":"2019-02-27T15:42:22","date_gmt":"2019-02-27T20:42:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/philosophy\/?p=6131"},"modified":"2026-02-06T13:08:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T18:08:16","slug":"do-languages-really-exist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/philosophy\/2019\/do-languages-really-exist\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Do languages really exist?&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<section class=\"w-screen px-6 cu-section cu-section--white ml-offset-center md:px-8 lg:px-14\">\n    <div class=\"space-y-6 cu-max-w-child-5xl  md:space-y-10 cu-prose-first-last\">\n\n            <div class=\"cu-textmedia flex flex-col lg:flex-row mx-auto gap-6 md:gap-10 my-6 md:my-12 first:mt-0 max-w-5xl\">\n        <div class=\"justify-start cu-textmedia-content cu-prose-first-last\" style=\"flex: 0 0 100%;\">\n            <header class=\"font-light prose-xl cu-pageheader md:prose-2xl cu-component-updated cu-prose-first-last\">\n                \n                                \n                            <\/header>\n\n                    <\/div>\n\n            <\/div>\n\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n<p>Public Lecture featuring Robert Stainton, Distinguished University Professor from the University of Western Ontario.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/philosophy\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/200\/Stainton-poster-2.pdf\">&#8220;Do languages <em>really<\/em> exist?&#8221;<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Location:&nbsp; Dominion-Chalmers, 355 Cooper Street<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Date: Thursday, March 7th<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Time:&nbsp; 7:00 pm<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Light refreshment to follow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Abstract:&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This accessible presentation centers around a seemingly absurd question: \u2018Do languages really exist?\u2019 Though the answer seems perfectly apparent, recall that until very recently it seemed obvious that genders and races \u201creally existed\u201d. What\u2019s more, many influential linguists and philosophers have recently provided plausible grounds for answering \u2018No\u2019. The aim of the talk is not to answer the question, but rather to consider i) what exactly is at issue (in particular, what is meant by \u2018languages\u2019 and \u2018really exist\u2019) and ii) why it matters, academically and socially, whether the skeptics are right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All are welcome!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Public Lecture featuring Robert Stainton, Distinguished University Professor from the University of Western Ontario. &#8220;Do languages really exist?&#8221; Location:&nbsp; Dominion-Chalmers, 355 Cooper Street Date: Thursday, March 7th Time:&nbsp; 7:00 pm Light refreshment to follow. Abstract:&nbsp;&nbsp; This accessible presentation centers around a seemingly absurd question: \u2018Do languages really exist?\u2019 Though the answer seems perfectly apparent, recall [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":"idea-inspiration"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/philosophy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/philosophy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/philosophy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/philosophy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/philosophy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6131"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/philosophy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6136,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/philosophy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6131\/revisions\/6136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/philosophy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/philosophy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/philosophy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}