B.A. (History), Pomona College, 1965.
M.L.S. (Library Science), University of California at Berkeley, 1969.
Ph.D. (Linguistics), University of California at Berkeley, 1976.
Dissertation: A Study of Referential Opacity.

Current Teaching Position

Professor, Linguistics & Philosophy, Michigan State University

Research

Articles:

2006    Definite and indefinite.  In Keith Browh, ed., the Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics,
            2nd ed., vol. 3.  Oxford: Elsevier, 392-399.  [pdf]

2005     Conditionals in English and first order predicate logic.  To appear in Journal of Foreign
             Languages (Shanghai).

2005     Where have some of the presuppositions gone?  [html] To appear in Betty Birner & Gregory
             Ward, eds., Drawing the boundaries of meaning: Neo-Gricean studies in pragmatics
              and semantics in honor of Laurence R. Horn.  Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

2005    Some remarks on indicative conditionals.  In Robert B. Young, ed., Proceedings from Semantics and
            Linguistic Theory (SALT) 14.  Ithaca, NY: CLC Publications, 1-19.  [pdf]

2005     Proper names and language.  [pdf] To appear in Greg Carlson & Francis Jeffry Pelletier, eds.,
             Reference and quantification: The Partee effect.  Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications.

2005    Issues in the semantics and pragmatics of definite descriptions in English.  To
            appear in Jeanette Gundel & Nancy Hedberg, eds., Interdisciplinary perspectives on
            reference processing.  [pdf]

2004    Definiteness and indefiniteness.  In Laurence R. Horn & Gregory Ward., eds.,
            Handbook of Pragmatics.  Oxford: Blackwell, 122-149.  [pdf]

2003     A reply to Szabó’s "Descriptions and uniqueness".  Philosophical Studies 113, 223-231.

2003     Some notes on quotation.  Belgian Journal of Linguistics 17, 13-26.

2002    Donkey demonstratives.  Natural Language Semantics 10, 285-298.

2002    Definiteness and proper names: Some bad news for the description theory.  Journal
            of Semantics 19, 191-201.  [html]

2001    Definiteness and identification in English.  In Németh T. Enikö, ed., Pragmatics in 2000:
            Selected papers from the 7th International Pragmatics Conference, Vol. 2.  Antwerp:
            International Pragmatics Association, 1-15. [pdf]

2000    Fodor and Lepore on meaning similarity and compositionality.  Journal of Philosophy 97, 454-455.

2000    Presuppositions as nonassertions.  Journal of Pragmatics 32, 1419-1437.

1999    Support for a unique theory of definite descriptions.   In Tanya Matthews & Devon
            Strolovitch, eds., Proceedings from Semantics and Linguistic Theory IX, 1-15.  Ithaca: Cornell
            University.  [html]

1999    Water = H2O.  Mind 108, 145-148.

1999    The formal approach to meaning.  Journal of Foreign Languages (Shanghai) 119:1, 2-20.
            [html]

1997    Models, truth, and semantics.  Linguistics and Philosophy 20:2, 117-138.

1997    A note on the nature of 'water'.  Mind 106, 311-319.

1997    Definiteness and existentials.  Language 73:1, 103-108.

1996    Doing without a partitive constraint.  J. Hoeksema, ed. Partitives: Studies on the syntax and
            semantics of partitive and related constructions (Groningen-Amsterdam Studies in Semantics
            (GRASS) 14), Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 25-56.

1995    Thinking without English.  Behavior and Philosophy 23:2, 49-55.  [html]

1995    Some remarks on specificity.  Linguistic Inquiry 26:2, 341-347.

1994    Referentiality, specificity, strength, and individual concepts.  WCCFL (Proceedings of the West
            Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics) 12, 473-484.

1993    A pragmatic account of the definiteness effect in existential sentences.  Journal of Pragmatics 19, 39-55.

1993    Some remarks on a causal theory of word meaning.  CLS (Papers from the Regional Meeting of the
            Chicago Linguistic Society) 29, vol. 2: The Parasession, 1-10.

1992    Definiteness, existentials, and the 'list' interpretation.  C. Barker and D. Dowty, eds., SALT II:
            Proceedings of the Second Conference on Semantics and Linguistic Theory, Columbus: The
            Ohio State University, 1-16.

Reviews:

2000    Review of Mappings in Thought and Language, by Gilles Fauconnier.  Minds and Machines 10,
            152-156.

1998    Review of Logic, Language and Computation, edited by Seiki Akama.  Philosophy in Review 18, 313-5.

1996    Review of Mental Spaces, by Gilles Fauconnier.  Minds and Machines 6:2, 239-242.

1996    Review of Dynamics, Polarity, and Quantification, edited by Makoto Kanazawa and Christopher J. Piñó.
            Language 72:1, 142-146.

1992    Review of The Psychology of Word Meanings, edited by Paula J. Schwanenflugel.  Language and Speech
            35:4, 463-468.

Manuscripts:

2003    Linguistic solutions to philosophical problems. Paper to be presented as part of a symposium on
            Philosophy and Linguistics, Pacific APA, Portland OR, March 2006.

2003    Specificity and referentiality.  Paper presented at the Workshop on Direct Reference and Specificity,
            Vienna, August 2003.  [pdf]

2003    The difference between definite and indefinite descriptions.   Paper presented at the annual
            meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, Atlanta, January 2003.  [html]

1998    Analyticity and nondescriptionality[html]

1996    The absolutely true story of the essential indexical, currently undergoing revision.

Work in progress:

(1) Noun phrase interpretation, including definiteness, specificity, proper names, and related phenomena. (2) Conditionals.  (3)  Referential opacity.