Holden Härtl
2025
Calling things by their names: Towards a unified account for name-informing and mixed quotation
Holden Härtl
Dialogue Discourse Volume 16
Holden Härtl
Dialogue Discourse Volume 16
This paper explores the semantic connection between mixed quotation and name-informing quotation, proposing a unified account for both. While mixed quotation combines direct quotation with indirect reporting, name-informing quotation highlights the linguistic shape of a concept’s conventionalized name. We argue that both types of quotation involve a naming predicate – explicit in name-informing quotation and covert in mixed quotation. A pilot questionnaire study, which presented participants with two-turn dialogue contexts, used the notion of at-issueness to probe the naming component across these types, supporting the hypothesis that both share a similar semantic structure. This unified approach contributes to a broader understanding of quotational constructions and their role in linguistic and discourse representation.