Token-reflexive, anaphoric and deictic functions of here

Thorstein Fretheim, Nana Aba Appiah Amfo, Ildikó Vaskó

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

There are basically three ways in which the reference of a token of the English proximal spatial indexical here and corresponding terms in other languages can be resolved in the context-dependent, pragmatic phase of the addressee's determination of the propositional content of an utterance that contains this adverbial adjunct. Here may refer reflexively to the place of utterance, including minimally the spot occupied by the speaker (token-reflexive reference), it may be anaphoric upon a discourse antecedent that provides information necessary for identification of the referent (anaphoric reference), or resolution of the reference depends on information derived from processing of a perceptual stimulus (deictic reference). These three pragmatic paths to resolution of the reference of proximal spatial indexicals are not mutually exclusive, so they do not warrant postulation of lexical ambiguity, at least not the traditional kind of ambiguity based on differences in conceptual meaning.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)239-294
Number of pages56
JournalNordic Journal of Linguistics
Volume34
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2011

Keywords

  • (spatial) indexicals
  • anaphora
  • deixis
  • derivational intention
  • procedural meaning
  • reference
  • Relevance Theory
  • token-reflexivity

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Token-reflexive, anaphoric and deictic functions of here'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this