Schlenker, Philippe. 2010. "Indexicals"
[Short Survey]. Written for the Handbook of Formal Philosophy,
edited by Sven Ove Hansson and Vincent F. Hendricks.
Abstract:
We
offer a brief survey of indexicals in natural language. Starting from a
modal logic with time and world parameters, we focus on five questions:
(i) What parameters should be added to account for indexicals? (ii) Why
do indexicals often seem to be 'scopeless'? (iii) Why do some sentences
that are intuitively a priori true
(e.g. I exist) become false
when prefixed with necessarily ?(iv)
What determines the cognitive significance of sentences with
indexicals? (v) Can this cognitive significance be fully conveyed in
attitude reports?