conceptual-role semantics

Conceptual-role semantics, also known as cognitive-role or inferential-role semantics, defines the meaning of an expression by its role in a speaker's mental life. This role is essentially how the expression contributes to inferences made in sentences containing it. For example, the word "I" has the same conceptual role for different speakers, meaning their utterances of "I am 30 years old" convey the same meaning, even if the referent of "I" differs.1

However, this theory faces challenges. It's difficult to ensure that words play the exact same conceptual role for different individuals, which raises questions about how communication is possible if meanings constantly differ. Additionally, it struggles to explain how the meaning of complex phrases is derived from the meanings of their parts, a concept known as compositionality.1