Quote Imperatives - Nijmegen Centre for Semantics

Semantics〈Otto says that I am a fool, (say(fool(i)))(o), t〉• 〈σ, ϕ, τ〉 c = ϕ c ∈ D τ– i c := the speaker of c– (say(ϕ))(α) c := the proposition that α c utters some sentencethat in her utterance context c ′ expresses proposition ϕ c– so: (say(fool(i)))(o) c = the proposition that Otto utters somethingthat expresses that I’m a foolDisquotational semantics of pure quotation• allow non-words in the grammar– e.g. 〈misunderestimate, ∅, eet〉– e.g. 〈syudg7 mvc, ∅, ∅〉• add utterance type u• add composition rule (pure quote):〈‘ ∩ σ ∩ ’, 〈σ, ϕ, τ〉, u〉〈σ, ϕ, τ〉• add semantics:– D u = G– 〈σ, ϕ, τ〉 c = 〈σ, ϕ, τ〉(Potts 2007:cf.)Direct discourse as pure quotation• 〈 says, say d , uet 〉〈Otto says, ‘I am a fool’, (say d (〈I’m a fool, fool(i), t〉))(o), t 〉〈Otto . . .〉〈says, say d , uet 〉 〈‘I’m a fool’, 〈I’m a fool, fool(i), t〉, u〉〈I’m a fool, fool(i), t〉〈I . . .〉〈am a fool . . .〉5