LINGUIST List 18.990
Mon Apr 02 2007
Diss: Semantics: Oshima: Perspectives in Reported Discourse
Editor for this issue: Hunter Lockwood
<hunterlinguistlist.org>
Directory
1. David
Oshima,
Perspectives in Reported Discourse
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Message 1: Perspectives in Reported Discourse
Date: 31-Mar-2007
From: David Oshima <davidyogmail.com>
Subject: Perspectives in Reported Discourse
Institution: Stanford University
Program: Department of Linguistics
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2006
Author: David Yoshikazu Oshima
Dissertation Title: Perspectives in Reported Discourse
Dissertation URL: http://davidyo.net/publications.aspx
Linguistic Field(s):
Semantics
Dissertation Director:
Ivan A Sag
Dissertation Abstract:
This thesis addresses issues regarding propositional attitudes, with anoverarching theme of how the speaker's choice of perspective (between hisown and the reported agent's) manifests itself in attitude reports. I takeup four dimensions of perspective: analytic, logophoric, deictic, andempathic. The analytic perspective concerns the de re and de dicto modes ofattitude reports. I defend the 'sententialist' approach to the de re/dedicto distinction over the 'scopal' approach, and argue that the de dictomode reflects the fact that the speaker chooses descriptive terms(linguistic forms) from the reported agent's perspective.
The logophoric perspective concerns the de se/non-de se opposition, whichhas recently attracted wide attention in the light of new cross-linguisticdata. Building on the widely accepted view that the object of a de sereport is a Kaplanian propositional character, I develop a solution to twoproblems known in the literature: (i) how to capture the relation betweenwhat the complement clause denotes and what the 'original'utterance/belief represents in a generalized way, and (ii) how to properlyrestrict occurrences and possible interpretations of indexical expressions.
The deictic and empathic perspectives concern the choice of the referencepoint(s) for deictic predicates (e.g., go and come) and the determinationof empathy relations (a la Kuno). First, I observe that the pragmaticmeanings associated with deictic predicates/empathy-loaded expressions arepresuppositional, and further point out that their projection pattern withrespect to an attitude predicate has interesting correlations with thechoice of the speaker's perspective. Then, I propose to treat deicticpredicates/empathy-loaded expressions as indexicals, which refer to eitherthe external context of utterance or a secondary context (In this sense,the deictic and empathic perspectives can be understood as subcomponents ofthe logophoric perspective.)
Towards the end of the thesis, I discuss factors that affect the possibleor favored choice of perspective, including (i) the interaction among thesubtypes of perspective (e.g., the bias for the consistency ofperspective), and (ii) the implicational hierarchy of the semantic types ofattitude predicates.
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