The pragmatics of propositional anaphora in English

Abstract

English employs a variety of devices to refer back to propositions, including demonstratives, the null complement anaphor, the pronominal it and the proform so. The last of these shows a relatively limited distribution. The relative distribution of it and so has been the subject of much inquiry. In this paper, I examine their differences in responses to polar questions, in response to assertions and in the context of anaphora to embedded propositions. I make the novel observation that believe with an overt source argument tracks with it and not so in these contexts. This observation inspires a novel approach to restricted distribution of so and its characteristic effect on interpretation. The notion of a sourced doxastic background is introduced as the basis of the semantics for doxastic attitude predicates. This new notion allows evidential distinctions between predicates to be encoded.