Online Inner Speech Colloquium - Kasia Jaszczolt

Kasia Jaszczolt

For the last inner speech colloquium of the year, we are delighted to have Kasia Jaszczolt (University of Cambridge) as our speaker. She will be giving a talk titled: "Self-reference and pragmatic indexicals". Further information and the abstract can be found below. Please note that we will be starting half an hour later than usual, at 17:00.

Date & Time: 22-10-26, 17:00-18:30 CEST

Link: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/345014069399153?p=RWDfS3OrNuOdEmFgGE 

Abstract

Indexicals are philosophers’ fiction – what counts as an indexical expression engenders interminable debates. It is well-documented that both indexicals and non-indexicals have indexical and non-indexical uses; languages without pronouns have referential nouns whose essential semantic/pragmatic properties are, arguably, not categorically different from those of indexicals. I argue that this lack of a principled distinction calls for regarding indexicality as a functional category – indexicals are not expressions but at most functions of expressions. I take on board the case of markers of first-person reference and demonstrate, using some cross-linguistic evidence, that a generalised perspective using such a functional category comes with an added advantage of being able to capture the facts that (i) different de se concepts warrant different links to the ‘self-file’ and that (ii) the cognitive access to oneself is a gradable property – the characteristics of self-reference that are critical for explicating self-talk.

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We hope to see many of you there!

Best regards,

Jonida Kodra, Daniel Müller and Mathijs Geurts (University of Osnabrück and Paris Lodron University Salzburg)