Wittgenstein and a cognitive theory of reference

This article presents an integration of Wittgenstein’s language games (as articulated in his "Philosophical Investigations") with the interaction theory of cognition. In this framework, we posit two cognitive mechanisms, namely projection and accommodation, through which a cognitive agent acts in its environment to fix reference of its concepts. I will then show how it can resolve some of the classical problems of reference, such as the dichotomy between the rigid designator and description theories of reference, the process of meaning change, and the problem of metaphorical reference