Semantics for Quotation

Abstract

The two influential accounts of pure quotation are the proper-name account and the description account; both preempt C1-C4. According to the proper-name account, quotations are unstructured proper names of the quoted expressions and so there is no systematic correlation between what occurs inside quotes and the referent of the entire quotation. The semantic theories of indirect speech canvassed earlier treat the complement clause as a semantic unit referring to a proposition. The semantic theories of quotation canvassed earlier treat pure quotes as singular terms referring to abstract objects, expression types. Adequate semantic accounts of pure, direct, mixed, and indirect quotation cannot disrespect C1-C4. According to C4, quotes in pure, direct, and mixed quotation should be treated uniformly. It is hard to evaluate alternative accounts before they are supplemented with an account of direct and pure quotation.