Quotations as Demonstrations

TLDR

Quotations are treated as demonstrations—nonserious, selective depictions of actions rather than mere descriptions. The study argues that quotations possess all characteristics of genuine demonstrations. Evidence is drawn from diverse spontaneous spoken and written quotation phenomena.

Abstract

The theory developed here is that quotations are demonstrations that are component parts of language use. Demonstrations are unlike descriptions in two main ways. They are nonserious rather than serious actions. A person demonstrating a limp isn't actually or really limping. And they depict rather than describe their referents, though they depict only selected aspects of the referents. The demonstrator of the limp depicts some but not all of its aspects. Quotations, we argue, have all the properties of genuine demonstrations. They too are nonserious actions and selective depictions. For evidence we appeal to a wide range of phenomena in spontaneous spoken and written quotations.*