Richard L. Mendelsohn
Lehman College Library (Bronx, NY 10468)
FB-54868-10
Fellowships for College Teachers and Independent Scholars
Research Programs
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Totals:
$50,400 (approved)
$33,600 (awarded)
Grant period:
1/1/2010 – 8/31/2010
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Propositions, Scope, and Reference
My project is to capture direct reference--the picking out of an object without the intermediation of any conceptualization of it--as a grammatical phenomenon, not as a feature of the lexical meaning of an expression. I interpret Donnellan's referential/attributive distinction as a (Russellian) scope phenomenon, and show how, given this propositional ambiguity, a plausible Fregean sense for the pronoun `I' gives the best account of the linguistic behavior of this pronoun, and in addition, a coherent account of de se attributions. I propose to write a monograph explaining and defending my approach in detail.
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