Luigi Pavone

The-predicativism is the view that proper names (henceforth, names) are common count nouns with a denominative use in all their literal occurrences. A core tenet of this view is that bare singular names in (apparent) argument position of a predicate function as the descriptive component of a covert incomplete definite description with a definite article as a phonologically null determiner. This article presents two closely related counterexamples to the-predicativism. The argument will be made that indefinite singular names (ISNs) – that is, singular names preceded by indefinites, with or without fronted-modifiers – generate a significant asymmetry between names and common count nouns.

This paper argues that the practice of employing bare pairs of quotation marks to represent the empty string in formal linguistics and computer science is well-founded in the implicit conventions governing the use of quotation marks in natural language. In the framework of the Inscriptional Theory of Quotation (ITQ), it is argued that sentences containing empty quotation (i.e., empty quotational sentences) are grammatical and meaningful. Furthermore, the notion of an empty string is employed in the analysis of reported speech to provide a unified account that identifies mixed quotation as the primary form of reported speech.

The process of slur reclamation is a linguistic phenomenon whereby members of a targeted group begin to employ their own slur as a means of self-labelling, expressing pride, fostering camaraderie, and reversing the derogatory perspective of the slur. This action is designed to deprive racist and bigoted institutions of a means of perpetuating social power imbalances. Some authors posit that slur reclamation entails a shift in meaning. The ambiguity thesis (AT) can be developed in a variety of ways depending on the semantic level at which the derogatory content is situated. However, AT is subject to a number of criticisms, including what has been termed Appropriation Worry (AW). This paper seeks to elucidate the semantic mechanisms of slur reclamation without recourse to AT. To do this, an imperative account of slurs is adopted, which will be termed warning theory of slurs (WT). This account proposes that reclaimed uses of slurs are expressions of irony and resilience.

This paper argues that impure direct/mixed quotation – that is, translated (or repaired, improved) direct or mixed quotation – has something interesting to tell us about how quotations ordinarily function. It forces us to focus on two general quotational features. (i) Quotation is not a purely verbal phenomenon, its intuitive content exceeds the limits of what is linguistically articulated; (ii) it presupposes a cooperation between two human beings: the quoter, who performs a quotation, and the addressee of that quotation. In the framework of an inscriptional analysis of direct and mixed quotation, inspired by Goodman’s approach to pure quotation, such a cooperation is described in terms of a pragmatic process of specification of the conventional meaning of a quotation, which consists of interpreting ostensively defined quotation predicates.

In a series of papers Alvin Plantinga argued for a serious actualist modal semantics based on the notions of possible world, understood as maximal possible state of affairs, and of individual essence (haecceity). Plantinga’s actualism is known as haecceitism. In spite of the fact that haecceitism has been thought by Plantinga to require a Kripke-style semantics, the aim of this paper is to show that it is compatible with constant domains semantics and the simplest quantified modal logic. I will argue that not only does this approach have all the advantages of a greater simplicity in combining quantification and modalities, but also it better conforms to the actualist program.

According to Goodman, a quotation can be treated as a predicate that applies to concrete inscriptions/utterances. Following this approach, Scheffler proposed an inscriptional analysis of direct and indirect speech. An improved version of inscriptionalism will be proposed in this chapter and extended to mixed quotation, that is, to what at first glance appears to be a derivative hybrid case of reporting speech that features a combination of direct and indirect verbal forms. An alternative view of mixed quotation as primary verbal form for reporting speech will be proposed, in virtue of which a unified inscriptional account for reporting speeches will be given.

This paper is in the scope of the philosophy of modal logic; more precisely, it concerns the semantics of modal logic, when the modal elements are interpreted as logical modalities. Most authors have thought that the logic for logical modality—that is, the one to be used to formalize the notion of logical truth (and other related notions)—is to be found among logical systems in which modalities are allowed to be iterated. This has raised the problem of the adequacy, to that formalization purpose, of some modal schemes, such as S4 and S5. It has been argued that the acceptance of S5 leads to non-normal modal systems, in which the uniform substitution rule fails. The thesis supported in this paper is that such a failure is rather to be attributed to what will be called “Condition of internalization.” If this is correct, there seems to be no normal modal logic system capable of formalizing logical modality, even when S5 is rejected in favor of a weaker system such as S4, as recently proposed by McKeon.