Semantics of Perspectival Utterances

Perspectival utterances are analyzed within Situation Semantics framework. Perspectival expressions are expressions speakers use when they describe facts from certain standpoints within their environments. Uses of perspecti-val expressions have two significant characteristics , bi-directional contextual dependency, and perspectivity transfer. Relational conception of meaning and mental states central in situation semantics is shown to be particularly useful in explicating perspectivity phenomena. A model is then presented which (1) attributes perspec-tivity to agents' mental states, (2) introduces the notion of point of view parameter in mental states, and (3) incorporates a general picture of linguistic communication. The model is shown to capture correctly our intuitions behind the uses of perspectival expressions. 1 Introduction Suppose that I am standing face to face to you and showing you a picture of me taken with several other people, and utter a sentence "Mr. Tanaka is standing left of me." There are three possibilities for what information I could intend the utterance to convey. Namely, the information that Mr. Tanaka is standing left of me, viewed from my position, from where I am now speaking, or the information that Mr. Tanaka is standing left of me, viewed from your position, from where you are now listening to my talk, or the information that Mr. Tanaka is standing left of me, viewed from my location in the picture. I may describe the location of Mr. Tanaka from either of these three perspectives. Or consider a case where a girl Hanako, after having read a story about a boy Taro, uttered in describing the plot of the story to her friend, "Taro had his belly, button stolen by Mr. Thunder." She was empathizing with the story protagonist Taro, and was describing the incident from his perspective. These examples show that, there are a certain class of expressions, the utterances of which not only describe external objective facts but also convey to hearers pieces of information about speakers, namely, from whose perspectives or points of view speakers are describing external facts. 1 These expressions are called perspectival expressions. Uses of perspectival expressions have following two significant characteristics. (1) Bi-directional contextual dependency: Information on point of view can either be supplied from context of utterances, or be specified explicitly by the form of utterances and added to ongoing context. (2) Perspectivity transfer: Perspectivity usually transfer from speakers to hearers in normal linguistic communications and hearers typically end up in states …