Do We Use Demonstratives Intentionally?

Kalbir Sohi
King's College, London

In my paper I utilise an argument made by Jennifer Hornsby to further argue that when we use demonstratives in speech we are not acting intentionally. I then examine the effects of this argument for the idea that we have intentions to refer when we use demonstratives. It is my contention that we can only attribute an intention of this kind to the psychology of speakers who use demonstratives if "intention" is used to talk about a subpersonal mental state that is no different to the type we employ when using other words. As such, any view which holds that referential intentions determine the reference of demonstratives (such as that adopted by Susanna Siegel, for instance) will not do justice to the idea that demonstratives require some intentional action on the part of the speaker to secure a referent.