Dissertation
Meaning Without Assertion: Metaphor, Seeing-As, and Linguistic Responsibility in Deniable Speech
Ph.D. dissertation, The University of Texas at Austin, 2026. Supervisor: Josh Dever. Committee: Mark Sainsbury, Kathleen Higgins, David Sosa, David Hills (Stanford).
The dissertation develops the Aspectual Construal View, on which a live metaphor does not convey a hidden proposition but invites the hearer to restructure their understanding of a subject through a governing characterization. Its success is a matter of aptness, measured by uptake, rather than truth. The view extends to a broader family of deniable speech, including dogwhistles and paralipsis, and grounds a principle of Responsibility for Available Content: speakers are accountable for the aspectual frames they foreseeably make available to a competent audience.
Works in Progress
“Deniable Power”
Extends the Aspectual Construal View and the Responsibility for Available Content principle to political rhetoric and plausible deniability.
“Praeteritio and Lying”
Asks whether one can lie with praeteritio (“not to mention…”), drawing on Stokke’s distinctions between what is said, asserted, and presupposed, and comparing praeteritio with bald-faced lies.
Presentations
“Imagistic Metaphor in Philosophical Investigations.” How to Do Things with Wittgenstein (2nd ed.), Department of Philosophy and Sociology, Pedagogical University of Cracow, Poland, May 2022.
