Let You Be Bound to Me (and Me to You)

Abstract

According to Kaplan’s (1977) Fixity Thesis, the semantic value of indexicals, i.e. first and second person pronouns, is fixed by the context of the actual speech act and cannot be manipulated by any logical operator: I refers to the speaker and you to the addressee. This theory has been challenged by empirical facts, especially the ability of first and second person pronouns to be bound in English focus constructions and to shift their reference in attitude contexts in some other languages. The goal of this paper is to provide novel data from English that further refute the Fixity Thesis. Crucially, my new contribution is to show that there is an intrinsic grammatical dependency between the two context parameters speaker s and addressee a: first person pronouns can bind second person pronouns and vice versa. This is so, I argue, because I and you can be understood as descriptions (e-type pronouns), i.e. “your addressee” and “my addressee” respectively.