Expressing the Self: From Types of De Se to Speech-Act Types. In: M. Huang and K.M. Jaszczolt (Eds.), Expressing the Self: Cultural Diversity and Cognitive Universals, Oxford: Oxford University Press 2018, 187-221.

Abstract

In this chapter Kasia M. Jaszczolt and Maciej Witek discuss the cognitive significance of the devices used to communicate de se thoughts and argue (and also partially empirically demonstrate) that, pace some extant proposals and pace the dominant presumption in semantics and philosophy of language, there is no evidence that natural languages use different kinds of expressions for externalizing different aspects of self-reference. On the basis of their empirical results from Polish, as well as evidence from a range of other languages and some theoretical argumentation, they sketch a possible future model founded on a correlation between speech-act types, interlocutors’ goals, and associated linguistic conventions on the one hand and expression type on the other.