9 - Indexical Predicates and Their Uses

Summary

INTRODUCTION

The central aim of this essay is to set out and defend the idea that indexicality may be a feature not only of referring expressions but also of predicate expressions. Section 2 examines the notions of reference, predication and indexicality, and explains how they will be understood in what follows. Section 3 asks, on this basis, what an indexical predicate or predicate component would look like. It also asks whether we can identify any in English and suggests that we can find at least one specimen. Section 4 argues that the phenomenon is more widespread than might at first appear. Finally, Section 5 considers ramifications of the idea, among them some of the uses to which indexical predication may be put and some of the reasons why it may be important for us. I hint at the end of this section at what seems to me potentially one of the most interesting applications, namely in giving an account of the means by which we represent items which are themselves representational. So, I suggest, the idea of indexical predication holds out the possibility of illuminating the structure of indirect speech reports and of our thoughts about others' thoughts. But full development of these ideas lies beyond the scope of this essay.

I do not seek to provide at any point a full formal treatment of the idea of indexical predication.