This paper argues first that, contrary to what one would expect, metaphorical interpretations of utterances pass two of Cappelan and Lepore’s Minimalist tests for semantic context-sensitivity. I then propose how, in light of that result, one might analyze metaphors on the model of indexicals and demonstratives, expressions that (even) Minimalists agree are semantically context-dependent. This a...

Spatial demonstratives - terms including this and that - are among the most common words across all languages. Yet, there are considerable differences between languages in how demonstratives carve up space and the object characteristics they can refer to, challenging the idea that the mapping between spatial demonstratives and the vision and action systems is universal. In seven experiments we ...

We use STAG to model the interaction between demonstratives and tense found in Blackfoot (Algonquian). In clauses with no tense or aspect marking, past tense can be encoded through a distal demonstrative on either the internal argument (transitives, unaccusatives) or the external argument (unergatives). A fourth class of predicate, semantically transitive but syntactically intransitive with a p...

Using a version of situation semantics, this article argues that bare and complex demonstratives are interpreted as individual concepts.