A mixed-quotational account of indirect discourse: Evidence from self-pointing gestures

Abstract

This paper argues that indirect discourse is a form of mixed quotation. It further posits that self-pointing gestures in indirect discourse, when aligned with a third-person pronoun co-referent with the matrix subject, constitute a character viewpoint gesture quoted from the matrix subject (cf. Ebert & Hinterwimmer 2022). To formally model this, Davidson’s (2015) demonstrational account of quotation is combined with Ebert & Ebert’s (2014) approach to gesture semantics. This analysis also readily explains observations that certain indexicals can shift in indirect discourse (Plank 1986; Anderson 2019), by reinterpreting them as quotations from the matrix subject.