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Situations and Individuals
Paul Elbourne
 Table of Contents and Sample Chapters
In Situations and Individuals, Paul Elbourne argues that the natural language expressions that have been taken to refer to individuals—pronouns, proper names, and definite descriptions—have a common syntax and semantics, roughly that of definite descriptions as construed in the tradition of Frege. In the course of his argument, Elbourne shows that proper names have previously undetected donkey anaphoric readings. This is contrary to previous theorizing and, if true, would undermine what philosophers call the direct reference theory (which holds that the sole contribution of a proper name to the truth conditions of a sentence is an individual) as well as the related doctrine that proper names are rigid designators.
Elbourne begins by addressing donkey anaphora, relating other concerns about pronouns to the solution of this notorious problem. His subsequent argumentation provides a unified semantics for the donkey anaphoric and bound and referential uses of pronouns and discusses the prospect of unifying the syntax and semantics of pronouns with the syntax and semantics of normal definite descriptions. Elbourne's aim is not only to advance his proposal of a unified syntax and semantics but also to urge linguists and philosophers dealing with pronoun interpretation to consider a wider range of theories than they do at present, and to test the competing claims of description-based theories and dynamic semantics against the data.
About the Author
Paul Elbourne is a Lecturer in Linguistics at Queen Mary, University of London.
| "Elbourne's book is a tremendously impressive achievement. He has managed to present and develop an interesting and unusual approach to definite DP structure and interpretation, and to defend it against all competitors.... It is not often that a book is both required reading and as enjoyable as this book is; it may well become a classic in its field."
—Barbara Abbott, Journal of Linguistics |
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| "Situations and Individuals takes on an ambitious task: to present a unified analysis of proper names and all kinds of pronouns. Subtle linguistic facts are brought to bear on old and new debates in linguistics and philosophy. Elbourne's book combines the best of both disciplines."
—Angelika Kratzer, Professor of Linguistics, University of Massachusetts Amherst
"A sparkling contribution to the linguistic and philosophical literature on anaphora and descriptions. Original, thorough, well presented, and immensely thought provoking—in short, required reading."
—Stephen Neale, Professor of Philosophy, Rutgers University
"Paul Elbourne's work is the latest, and in several areas likely the last, word on several issues in the interpretation of nominal anaphora. As he stresses, the great variety of phenomena from several languages that can now be discussed at a high level call for a detailed discussion of critical examples. This Elbourne provides for us, now and for the future."
—James Higginbotham, Linda Hilf Chair in Philosophy and Professor of Linguistics, University of Southern California
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