Oxford Colloquium in Linguistics and Philosophy 2026

Abstract: ‘Deferred reference’ is the name given to the phenomenon whereby a speaker in using a singular term calls the audience’s attention to one object in order to make some other object the semantic value in context of the singular term. For example, I could point at a picture of Ernie and say ‘He is a philosopher.’ In calling your attention to the picture, I secure Ernie as the semantic value in context of my use of ‘he’. In the present talk, I formulate novel accounts of deferred reference involving both indexicals and names.

The talk will be followed by a reception. All welcome. 

Ofra Magidor (Philosophy)