The ontology of words: Realism, nominalism, and eliminativism

Miller, J.T.M.

doi:10.1111/phc3.12691

The ontology of words: Realism, nominalism, and eliminativism

Miller, J.T.M.

Authors

Dr James Miller james.miller@durham.ac.uk
Assistant Professor

Abstract

What are words? What makes two token words tokens of the same word‐type? Are words abstract entities, or are they (merely) collections of tokens? The ontology of words tries to provide answers to these, and related questions. This article provides an overview of some of the most prominent views proposed in the literature, with a particular focus on the debate between type‐realist, nominalist, and eliminativist ontologies of words.

Citation

Miller, J. (2020). The ontology of words: Realism, nominalism, and eliminativism. Philosophy Compass, 15(7), Article e12691. https://doi.org/10.1111/phc3.12691

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	May 31, 2020
Online Publication Date	Jul 30, 2020
Publication Date	2020-07
Deposit Date	Jul 30, 2020
Publicly Available Date	Jul 31, 2020
Journal	Philosophy Compass
Publisher	Wiley
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	15
Issue	7
Article Number	e12691
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1111/phc3.12691

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Copyright Statement
© 2020 The Author. Philosophy Compass published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution‐NonCommercial‐NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non‐commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.