What Do We Talk About When We Talk? - Speculative grammar and the semantics and pragmatics of focus
This monograph deals with the `aboutness' of language. First, the sense in which language `is about' or `reflects' both reality and a mental picture of reality is turned into a cornerstone of a reflectionist or `Speculative Grammarian' semantics and pragmatics. Second, the `Speculative Grammar' idea is made concrete in a logico-linguistic account of the way language `is about' the whole of reality as well as about certain fractions of it. Third, the reflectionist perspective is used for a universalist account of the way speech acts `are about' their subjects, topics, and foci.