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From Utterances to Speech Acts

By Mikhail Kissine

"Kissine offers a new theory of speech acts which is philosophically sophisticated and builds on work in cognitive science, formal semantics, and linguistic typology. This highly readable, brilliant essay is a major contribution to the field."

--François Recanati, Institut Jean-Nicod



Summary Details


Query:   summary of 'de se' responses
Author:  Ana Perez-Leroux
Submitter Email:  click here to access email
Linguistic LingField(s):   General Linguistics
Language Documentation
Semantics
History of Linguistics

Summary:   Dear linguists,

In reference to my query on Hornstein's usage of the term 'de se', in
his article in Linguistic Inquiry early this year, I received responses
from:

Donald Stahl <donaldstahl@hotmail.com>
Cassian Braconnier <cassian@worldnet.net>
Hornstein (via Mari Broman Olsen <molsen@umiacs.umd.edu>, who kindly
submitted the query to Hornstein)
Luis Fernando Alonso Ovalle & Alejandra Barriales Bouche
<luisalo@acad.umass.edu>

SUMMARY OF RESPONSES
- ------
The term was introduced by the philosopher David Lewis in a paper in
the Philosophical Review. It was coined in the context of the
philosophical terminology "de dicto" and "de re." "De dicto" (or
dictu) means relying on the words used to convey a bit of information
as opposed to relying only upon the thing spoken of for the
statement's truth or falsity. E.g., 'It is possible that the Morning
Star is not the Evening Star.' is true de dicto, but not de re.

"De se" is supposed to mean that the statement's truth value depends
upon the speaker only (I think).
- ----------
Read Higginbotham's paper in the Control volume for a long discussion
of 'de se' readings. N
- ---------
The use of the term 'de se' appears in a classic paper by Lewis [no
reference was provided], referring to a contrast with 'de re' readings.
Its integration in the semantics literature is mainly due to Chierchia's
work [no reference provided],and has had interesting implications for
temporal semantics.

[My translation & summary of original response]

Gratefully,
Ana Perez-Leroux

Ana Teresa Perez-Leroux
Assistant Professor of Spanish and Linguistics
Dept. of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese
The Pennsylvania State University
352 N.Burrowes Bldg.
University Park, PA 16802
tel: (814) 865-6252/ messages at 865-4252
Fax: (814) 863-7944

LL Issue: 10.604
Date Posted: 27-Apr-1999
Original Query: Read original query


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