Quotation Apposition

Abstract

While disagreeing over details, analyses of quotation have all assumed that quotations are referring expressions. That assumption is unnecessary and unacceptable in its implications. It entails a quasi‐Parmenidean impossibilityof meaningfully denying the meaningfulness or referential function of anything uttered, and also implies that ill formed constructions are well formed tautologies. For quotations to refer, a genuine referring expression is needed, such as a noun phrase or description, to which the quotation is in apposition. A quotation is not itself a word string, though it may contain one or more words. The markers signal that the enquoted material is like a sentence‐embedded colour patch, material displayed to facilitate reference to something identifiable by/with it, specified by the noun phrase it subserves.