Names and Meaning: Jokes from Descriptivism, Referentialism, and Speech Acts Perspectives

Abstract

Jokes, whether oral or written, are part of the linguistic context of most individuals within a community, although they have not been considered a significant topic in philosophical discussions in recent years. However, reflecting on jokes can be useful for understanding various issues in the philosophy of language, particularly those related to names and meaningfulness. One of the main proposals of this article is to use a common linguistic practice to conduct a panoramic review of the problem of meaning through the analytical method. For this purpose, we will analyze a specific written joke: the phrase hoy no fío, mañana sí ("today I don't give credit, tomorrow I will"), which appears in various neighborhood shops across Latin America. This phrase will serve as an example to address the theses of referentialism, as proposed by Bertrand Russell and Saul Kripke; descriptivism, as developed by G. Frege, J. Searle, and P. Strawson; and contextualism, as formulated by L. Wittgenstein and J. Austin. These three frameworks will allow for an explanatory and comprehensive approach to the problematic components involved. This article aims to promote the social appropriation of specific knowledge regarding a shared linguistic everydayness and to demonstrate the application of these paradigms to ordinary circumstances through normative contextualism, without trivializing the context in which we live, while recognizing the practical consequences that may arise from employing the language game inherent to jokes.