The chapters in this volume address a variety of issues surrounding quotation, such as whether it is a pragmatic or semantic phenomenon, what varieties of quotation exist, and what speech acts are involved in quoting. Quotation poses problems for many prevailing theories of language. One fundamental principle is that for a language to be learnable, speakers must be able to derive the truth-conditions of sentences from the meanings of their parts. Another popular view is that indexical expressions like "I" display a certain fixity -- that they always refer to the speaker using them. Both of these tenets appear to be violated by quotation.
This volume is suitable for scholars in philosophy of language, semantics, and pragmatics, and for graduate students in philosophy and linguistics. The book will also be useful for researchers in other fields that study quotation, including psychology and computer science.
Part I. Use & Mention.- Scare-Quoting and Incorporation, Mark McCullagh.- Blah, blah, blah: Quasi-Quotation and Unquotation, Paul Saka.- Use-Mention Confusions in "Sloppy, Colloquial Speech", Marga Reimer.- A Bridge from the Use-Mention Distinction to Natural Language Processing, Shomir Wilson.- Part II. Quotation Unified.- Unity in the Variety of Quotation, Kirk Ludwig & Greg Ray.- Semantics vs. Pragmatics in Impure Quotation, Mario Gómez-Torrente.- Reference and Reference-Fixing in Pure Quotation, Manuel García-Carpintero.- Quotation in Dialogue, Eleni Gregoromichelaki.- Part III. New Directions.- The Pragmatics of Attraction: Explaining Unquotation in Direct and Free Indirect Discourse, Emar Maier.- Quotation through History: A Historical Case for the Proper Treatment of Quotation, Michael Johnson.- Ideo- and Auto-Reflexive Quotation, Wayne A. Davis.- Referential Analysis of Quotation, Dale Jacquette.- Monsters and I: The Case of Mixed Quotation, KasiaM. Jaszczolt and Minyao Huang
"The volume offers a very good depiction of current research in the diverse and active field of quotation. ... anyone working on quotation will find it useful and thought-provoking." (Erik Stei, Language, Vol. 95 (2), June, 2019)
