Competence with Demonstratives

This chapter argues that the impression of conflict between the aim of preserving perspective and the aim of preserving reference — induced by the distinction between those aspects of language use that belong to the setting-up phase and those that belong to the phase of saying things — survives under scrutiny and is even inevitable given the principles that govern our languages. It examines linguistic competence with demonstrative and indexical constructions, and the semantics of complement clauses, and supports the metaphor of transformations of coordinate systems. If these views are on the...

This chapter argues that the impression of conflict between the aim of preserving perspective and the aim of preserving reference — induced by the distinction between those aspects of language use that belong to the setting-up phase and those that belong to the phase of saying things — survives under scrutiny and is even inevitable given the principles that govern our languages. It examines linguistic competence with demonstrative and indexical constructions, and the semantics of complement clauses, and supports the metaphor of transformations of coordinate systems. If these views are on the right track, then the notion of semantic competence — knowledge of meaning — should be seen as including the principles governing demonstrative and indexical expressions.