Thesis: So-called "essential indexicals" in thought are indeed essential, but they are not indexical. It is not their semantics that distinguishes them but their function, their psychological role. *********** A strong contemporary current runs to the effect that the ability of an agent to project knowledge of the world into relevant action in the world depends on the ability to think indexical...

Wireless mobile devices present a present a huge design and representational challenge for the discipline of humancomputer interaction. Past approaches have focused on user, task and artifact. This paper argues that in addition to these factors an understanding of context can assist with meeting design challenges for mobile applications. It proposes a matrix of eight dimensions of context drawn...

After presenting a variety of arguments in support of the idea that ordinary names are indexical, I respond to John Perry’s recent arguments against the indexicality of names. I conclude by indicating some connections between the theory of names defended here and Wittgenstein’s observations on naming, and suggest that the latter may have been misconstrued in the literature.

Some philosophers offer arguments contending that ordinary names such as “London” are radically indeterminate in reference. The conclusion of such arguments is that there is no fact of the matter whether “London” refers to a city in the south of England, or whether instead it refers to Sydney, Australia. Some philosophers have even suggested that we accept the conclusion of these arguments.1 Su...

Certain pronoun contexts are argued to establish a local center (LC), i.e., a conventionalized indexical similar to l s t /2nd pers. pronouns. Demonstrat ive pronouns, also indexicals, are shown to access entities that are not LCs because they lack discourse relevance or because they are not yet in the universe of discourse. 1 I n t r o d u c t i o n Referring expressions in discourse are multi...

This article examines the effects that voice features have on advertising. Previous research in neurolinguistics and psycholinguistics shows that linguistic and extralinguistic (“indexical”) properties of speech are closely coupled in speech perception and spoken language processing. We review research from the advertising and marketing literature that examines which voices are the most suitabl...