Inferentialism, expressivism, and unarticulated constituents

The debate on contextualism highlights a tension between the classic Fregean notion of propositional content and the context-sensitivity of meaning. The tension seems irreconcilable unless we relax either the idea that contents are fully articulated or the idea that they are complete. This article argues that inferentialist theories of meaning offer the explanatory resources to clarify the dilemma. In particular, the expressivist strand of normative inferentialism supports a dynamic view of the logical form of propositional contents, according to which unarticulated constituents can be reinterpreted in a rather non-problematic way.