City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 1998 Indexical Expressions: Syntax and Context Barbara Bevington Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/1787 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type o f computer printer. The quality of this reproductionis dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. 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Contact UMI directly to order. UMI A Bell & Howell Information Company 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor MI 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. INDEXICAL EXPRESSIONS: SYNTAX AND CONTEXT by BARBARA BEVINGTON A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Linguistics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, the City University of New York. 1998 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI N um ber: 9 830683 Copyright 19 98 by Bevington, Barbara All rights reserved. UMI Microform 9830683 Copyright L998, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ii © 199g BARBARA BEVINGTON AH Rights Reserved Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Linguistics in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. [signature] A?£\l zg. iqqg Date Robert W. Fiengo^Tr. Chair of Examining Committee [signature] Date Charles Cairns Executive Officer [signature] Richard Kayne [signature] William McClure Supervisory Committee The City University of New York Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Abstract INDEXICAL EXPRESSIONS: SYNTAX AND CONTEXT by Barbara Bevington Adviser: Professor Robert W. Fiengo 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 third person incorrectly. Evidence for syntactic "uniformity"—that first, second and third person expressions are individuated in the same way—is presented in chapter 2. It is concluded that Kaplan’s notion of "character" as a semantic function from context to individual is theoretically inadequate. Hypothesized instead is syntactic "orientation," a function that operates at the syntactic level of logical form, the output of which is not individuals but syntactic indices. The resulting proposed structure of the formal context is thus two-tiered; the syntactic input to the semantic component is uniform across first, second and third person expressions. Analysis of the "switch" phenomenon in chapters 3 and 4 lends support to the syntactic orientation hypothesis. A natural account of switch is advanced within Fiengo and Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. May’s dependency theory, through the assumption that dependencies may occur among syntactic orientations. The existence of two derivational levels at logical form—as proposed in the new model—is revealed to be crucial to the explanation of more complicated switch data. Additionally, evidence is presented that oriented sentences are the structure of choice in the making of expressive utterances such as "speech acts." In chapter 5, syntactic orientation is shown to provide a natural way of describing the pronominal systems across languages. Furthermore, the new model is generalized to include non-pronominals, yielding a general theory of indexical expressions. Finally, "demonstrative" expressions are defined with respect to indexicals, with which they are argued to be in complementary distribution. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Acknowledgements Without the support of others, I could not have completed this dissertation. For supporting me, I thank Susan Bevington—the best sister in the world—as well as my dear friends Alice Gartman, Valerie McCloskey, and Dianne Taylor. It was under the tutelage of John Moyne and Janet Fodor, and through their encouragement, that I first realized 1 might become a linguist. More recently, Robert May offered generous and useful advice for what was to become this dissertation, as did the members of my committee, Richard Kayne and William McClure. I am deeply indebted to them all. The lion’s share of my gratitude, however, is reserved for Robert Fiengo, Jr., who guided this thesis since its inception. Throughout all its developmental stages, he contributed astute observations and invaluable suggestions, never failing to ask that troubling, interesting question that deepened the inquiry. I am fortunate indeed to have had such a perceptive and sagacious mentor. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. v ii Table of Contents A bstract............................................................................................................................................. iv Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ vi Chapter 1: Indexical expressions ............................................................................................. I 1.0 What are indexicals?......................................................................................................... I 1.01 Acquiring indexicals ........................................................................................... 6 L.02 How to use indexicals: some not-so-simple ways ........................................ 8 1.03 Indexical transplants ........................................................................................... 12 1.1 Kaplan’s theory of indexicals ........................................................................................... 16 1.11 Direct reference, character and content ............................................................ 18 1.12 On pointing ............................................................................................................ 22 1.13 Internal versus external p o in tin g ....................................................................... 29 1.14 Metacharacter ...................................................................................................... 33 1.2 Next ste p s ............................................................................................................................. 36 Chapter 2: A new model for indexicals ................................................................................. 38 2.0 Why a new model? ............................................................................................................ 38 2.1 The syntactic indexing of indexical pro n o u n s ............................................................... 40 2.11 What are numeric indices and what is their function? ................................... 41 2.12 The anti-indexing and dualist positions ...........................................................