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Indexical Expressions: Syntax And Context, Barbara Bevington

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Indexicals are those expressions in natural language–such as I, you, here, and now–whose reference varies with occasion of use, picking out individuals in virtue of their contextual roles. Although analyses of the semantics of indexicals have been advanced–most notably by Kaplan–their syntax has heretofore been largely ignored. This dissertation puts forth a theory of the syntax of indexical expressions, within the framework of generative grammar, and proposes a new model of the formal context for natural language.

The central argument against prior accounts of indexicals is that such theories draw the distinction between the first and second person pronouns versus …