ORIGINAL ARTICLE Analyticity and Possible-World Semantics Wlodek Rabinowicz Received: 9 March 2006 / Accepted: 10 February 2010 / Published online: 7 March 2010 © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010 Abstract Standard approaches to possible-world semantics allow us to define necessity and logical truth, but analyticity is considerably more difficult to account for. The source of this difficulty lies in the received model-theoretical conception of a language interpretation. In intuitive terms, analyticity amounts to truth in virtue of meaning alone, i.e. solely in virtue of the interpretation of linguistic expressions. In other words, an analytic sentence should remain true under all variations of ‘extralinguistic reality’ as long as the interpretation is kept constant. However, the received conception of an interpretation as a mapping from language to a model frame hinders keeping the interpretation constant while varying other components of the model. To make room for analyticity, the concept of an interpretation should therefore be revised. The latter should be made richer in content than it has usually been assumed. As a by-product, this revision also gives us a one-dimensional analogue of the influential two-dimensional account of a priori. We are thus able to map out the network of formal connections between the notions of analyticity, apriority, logical truth and necessity. 1 Introduction The aim of this paper is to consider how the notion of analyticity can be dealt with in possible-world semantics. Semantics of this kind gives us a clear account of necessity and logical truth, but analyticity turns out to be more difficult to account for. An earlier version of this paper, entitled “Analyticity: An Unfinished Business in Possible-World Semantics”, was published in H. Lagerlund, S. Lindstro ¨m and R. Sliwinski (eds), Modality Matters: Twenty-Five essays in Honour of Krister Segerberg, Uppsala Philosophical Studies 53, Uppsala 2006, pp. 345–58. The present version is considerably revised. W. Rabinowicz (&) Department of Philosophy, Lund University, Kungshuset, Lundaga ˚rd, 222 22 Lund, Sweden e-mail: Wlodek.Rabinowicz@fil.lu.se 123 Erkenn (2010) 72:295–314 DOI 10.1007/s10670-010-9216-4