Craige Roberts, OSU
Abstract for the 2006 Workshop on Philosophy and Linguistics
University of Michigan

Perspective in Semantic Interpretation

A variety of linguistic devices, semantic and pragmatic, guide the 
addressee during interpretation to consider only certain (types of) 
situations and to adopt a particular perspective on the information 
presented about them.  Among other things, the perspective suggested 
leads one to attend to only certain facets of the situations under 
consideration and only certain properties of the individuals in them; 
this is sometimes called the intended mode of presentation.  I consider 
one way of modeling perspective in a situation semantics and explore 
some of its ramifications for interpretation, with attention to domain 
selection, de dicto interpretation, incomplete descriptions and 
specific interpretations of indefinites.