Descriptive pronouns revisited : the semantics and pragmatics of identification-based descriptive interpretations
This thesis confronts the semantic/pragmatic issues raised by identification - based descriptive uses of pronouns. The phenomenon, also known as deferred uses (Nunberg, 1993), arises when the correct understanding of a pronoun is dependent on the identification of a specific individual in the context that provides it with a descriptive (as opposed to a singular) interpretation. Moreover, the identification of the salient individual makes the interpretation available in a rather indirect way. For example, by pointing at a huge footprint in the sand and uttering âHe must be a giantâ, the speaker can convey the proposition that the footprint maker must be a giant, where the mental representation footprint (necessary for identification) and the representation the footprintmaker (the pronounâs interpretation) are not identical. These uses also display interesting properties when it comes to their ability to provide antecedents for other pronouns. As such, they are at the cross-road of many topics in philosophy of language and linguistics, including indexicality, anaphora, and figurative uses of language (metonymy). In this thesis, I propose that the data is best accounted for by a combination of relevance-theoretic
Galery, T. N.
Descriptive pronouns revisited : the semantics and pragmatics of identification-based descriptive interpretations. This thesis confronts the semantic/pragmatic issues raised by identification - based descriptive uses of pronouns. The phenomenon, also known as deferred uses (Nunberg, 1993), arises when the correct understanding of a pronoun is dependent on the identification of a specific individual in the context that provides it with a descriptive (as opposed to a singular) interpretation. Moreover, the identification of the salient individual makes the interpretation available in a rather indirect way. For example, by pointing at a huge footprint in the sand and uttering âHe must be a giantâ, the speaker can convey the proposition that the footprint maker must be a giant, where the mental representation footprint (necessary for identification) and the representation the footprintmaker (the pronounâs interpretation) are not identical. These uses also display interesting properties when it comes to their ability to provide antecedents for other pronouns. As such, they are at the cross-road of many topics in philosophy of language and linguistics, including indexicality, anaphora, and figurative uses of language (metonymy). In this thesis, I propose that the data is best accounted for by a combination of relevance-theoretic
descriptive pronoun revisit semantics_pragmatic identification based descriptive interpretation confronts semantic_pragmatic issue_raise identification base descriptive pronoun phenomenon also_know arise correct pronoun dependent identification specific_individual context provide descriptive opposed singular interpretation moreover identification salient individual make interpretation available rather indirect way example point huge sand utter must giant speaker convey proposition maker must giant mental_representation necessary identification representation pronoun interpretation identical also display interest property come ability provide antecedent pronoun cross road many topic philosophy_language linguistics include indexicality anaphora figurative_language metonymy propose data best account combination relevance_theoretic