Indexical Expression
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An Indexical Expression is a referring expression that ..
- AKA: Indexical, Indexicality.
- See: Named Expression, Definite Expression.
References
2009
- (WordNet, 2009) ⇒ http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=indexical
- S: (adj) indexical (of or relating to or serving as an index)
- (Wikipedia, 2009) ⇒ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indexical
- In linguistics and in philosophy of language, an indexical behavior or utterance points to (or indicates) some state of affairs. For example, I refers to whoever is speaking; now refers to the time at which that word is uttered; and here refers to the place of utterance. For Charles Peirce, "indexicality" is one of three sign modalities (see next paragraph), and is a phenomenon far broader than language. Anything we can construe as a sign that points to something -- including a weathervane (an index of wind direction), or smoke (an index of fire) -- is operating indexically. In the human realm, social indexicality includes any sign (clothing, speech variety, table manners) that points to, and helps create, social identity.
2008
- (Bach, 2008) ⇒ Kent Bach. (2008). “On Referring and Not Referring.” In: Reference: Interdisciplinary Perspectives." Jeanette K. Gundel and Nancy Hedberg, editors. Oxford University Press.