Deferred Reference of Proper Names. (8th March 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kijania-Placek, Katarzyna; Banaś, Paweł
• Is Part Of: Journal of semantics. Volume 38:Number 2(2021)
• Page Start: 195
• Page End: 219
• Publication Date: 2021-03-08
• Subjects: Semantics -- Periodicals; Semantik; Semantics; Periodicals; 401.43
• DOI: 10.1093/jos/ffab001
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0167-5133

Abstract

Abstract: In this paper, we argue that proper names have deferred uses. Following Geoffrey Nunberg, we describe the deferred reference mechanism by which a linguistic expression refers to something in the world by exploiting a contextually salient relation between an index and the referent in question. Nunberg offered a thorough analysis of deferred uses of indexicals but claimed that proper names do not permit such uses. We, however, offer a number of examples of uses of proper names which pass grammatical tests for deferred usage, as put forward by Nunberg.