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Tensed Thoughts
Author(s) -
HIGGINBOTHAM JAMES
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
mind and language
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.905
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1468-0017
pISSN - 0268-1064
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0017.1995.tb00012.x
Subject(s) - sentence , linguistics , content (measure theory) , reflexivity , phenomenon , event (particle physics) , sequence (biology) , semantics (computer science) , subject (documents) , action (physics) , present tense , psychology , epistemology , philosophy , computer science , mathematics , sociology , verb , mathematical analysis , social science , physics , quantum mechanics , biology , library science , genetics , programming language
Consider mental states of the type that relate a subject to a content expressed by a sentence. I propose that some of these states necessarily include as constituents of their contents the states themselves. These reflexive states arise when one locates a content as belonging, for example, to one's own present or past. That content is then a tense% thought, ordering one's present state with respect to the content. Anaphoric cross‐reference between an event or state (understood as in Davidson's proposal for the logical form of action sentences) and a constituent of its own content is responsible, I argue, for the phenomenon of sequence of tense in English. Conversely, the fact that some states are necessarily reflexive supports the view that the elaborations of logical form that account for sequence of tense are no mere artefact of semantics, but even intrinsic to some of our utterances and thoughts.