Terence Parsons What Do Quotation Marks Name? Frege's Theories of Quotations and That-clauses

This paper explores Frege's views of quotations and that-clauses. In Section II his view is stated in a rough way; it leaves several questions open. In Section III the view that quotation-mark pairs are functional names (in Frege's sense) is explored, and in Section IV the contrary view is discussed. Both views are consistent with Frege's articulated theory. In Section IV the question is raised whether quoted phrases have parts which refer; this turns out to be equivalent to the view that functional names are themselves functions. Section V draws most of the same conclusions about that-clauses and the word ' that ' that were drawn earlier concerning quotations and quotation-marks. One theme that runs throughout the paper is that it is typically the word ' that ' and quotation-marks that give rise to shifts of reference, rather than words such as 'says', 'believes' or 'is necessary'.