Pointing at Jack, Talking about Jill: Understanding Deferred Uses of Demonstratives and Pronouns

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to explore the proper content of a formal semantic theory in two respects: clarifying first, which uses of expressions a formal theory should seek to accommodate, and, second, how much information the theory should contain. I explore these two questions with respect to occurrences of demonstratives and pronouns—the so–called ‘deferred’ uses—which are often classified as non–standard or figurative. I argue that, contrary to initial impressions, they must be treated as semantically identical to ordinary, perceptual uses of these expression–types, and that this finding has important repercussions for our view of the scope and limits of a semantic theory.

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