Perspective

Lecturer: Hazel Pearson, Queen Mary University of London
Room: 1.402
This course is an introduction to the problem of how perspective is encoded in natural language, with particular attention to the representation of mental states and especially first person perspective (the so-called ‘de se’). We will marshall a range of evidence from linguistic phenomena across a range of languages (e.g. predicates of personal taste, counteridentical statements etc.) in order to develop a new approach to the linguistic representation of de se. The topic has consequences for the analysis of pronouns and anaphora, obligatory control, binding and other core topics from linguistic theory, as well as bearing on current debates in philosophy and psychology.
Course material

Mon Aug 5th

  • -

    Introduction

Tue Aug 6th

  • -

    The state of the debate

Wed Aug 7th

  • -

    The argument from counteridenticals

Thu Aug 8th

Fri Aug 9th

  • -

    A new approach

Mon Aug 12th

  • -

    The bigger picture: tense, de re and other matters

Tue Aug 13th

  • -

    The linguistic significance of perspective

Wed Aug 14th

  • -

    The philosophical and psychological significance of perspective

Thu Aug 15th

Fri Aug 16th

  • -

    Wrap-up