Situations and individuals
Author(s)
Elbourne, Paul, 1971-
DownloadFull printable version (16.42Mb)
Other Contributors
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy.
Advisor
Irene Heim.
Terms of use
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
I argue that definite descriptions, pronouns and proper names share one common syntax and semantics, basically that of definite descriptions. E-type pronouns are argued to be definite articles that take NP complements elided in the phonology; referential and bound variable pronouns are analyzed as definite articles taking indices as phonologically null complements. Proper names are shown to have previously undetected E-type and bound readings, meaning that they too are best regarded as definite descriptions. It is shown that this position has deleterious consequences for the philosophical theories of direct reference and rigid designation.
Description
Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy, 2002. Includes bibliographical references (p. 220-233).
Date issued
2002Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Linguistics and PhilosophyPublisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Keywords
Linguistics and Philosophy.