Semantic and Pragmatic Aspects of Indexicals

Abstract

In a paper of Romdenh-Romluc the following two claims are attributed to the Kaplanian semantics of indexicals: 1) Each token of ‘I’ refers to the utterer. 2) The reference-determining context is the context of utterance. Romdenh-Romluc finds these claims wrong, adduces examples of using indexicals that she takes to be counter-examples to these claims, and suggests a theory that does not endorse them. The present paper levels a criticism on her view. I show that the claims above are misformulated, that they cannot be attributed to Kaplan’s semantics, and that Romdenh-Romluc confuses semantics and pragmatics. The confusion is visible in the fact that she considers communicatively relevant contexts (i.e. the context that enables the success of communication) to be a semantic phenomenon whereas it is a pragmatic one.