This article aims at proposing an account of the linguistic meaning (or: character) of pure indexicals (indexicals, for short). On its core theoretical proposal, a deference mechanism is built into the meaning of indexicals, and this mechanism defers the task of reference to contextually‐given designation relations. The basic motivation for this claim is that the contexts of tokening of indexicals, be they perceptual or discursive, are rich semiotic entities that provide designation relations that pre‐exist the interpretation of such indexicals. The latter, on my suggestion, would thus be deferential devices through which language exploits these semiotic elements of contexts. I make a case for this deferentialist image by first taking issue with intentionalism and token‐reflexivism concerning the use of indexicals in face‐to‐face communication. I argue for the possibility of indexicals having perceptual reference, claiming that intentionalism can account only for a pragmatic content that is sometimes added to the semantic content, but not for the semantic content itself, and that token‐reflexivism gives norms for the perceptual reference of indexicals, but not the reference operation itself. I then proceed to extend deferentialism to indexical expressions in general on the one hand, and to anaphoric uses of pure indexicals on the other.

中文翻译：

---

参考引用：索引的真正符号学概况及其上下文

本文旨在提出一种纯索引词（简称索引词）的语言含义（或特征）的说明。在其核心理论建议中，引用机制已内置到索引的含义中，并且该机制推迟了根据上下文给出的指定关系进行引用的任务。此主张的基本动机是，索引词的标记上下文（无论是感知性的还是话语性的）是丰富的符号实体，它们提供预先存在对此类索引词的解释的指定关系。因此，在我的建议下，后者将成为语言利用这些上下文符号元素的递归设备。首先，我考虑一下在面对面交流中使用索引法的故意主义和代名词反思主义，以此来论证这种尊严主义的形象。我认为索引词可能具有感性参照的可能性，声称故意主义只能解释有时添加到语义内容中的务实内容，而不能解释语义内容本身，并且令牌反射性为规范性引用提供了规范。索引，而不是引用操作本身。然后，我一方面将泛化主义扩展到一般的索引表达式，另一方面又扩展到纯索引的隐喻用法。