2018/01/29 by François Recanati, François Récanati · 1 citation
Computer Science · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Authorship Attribution and Profiling #Language, Metaphor, and Cognition #Names, Identity, and Discrimination Research
paper · doi:10.1093/arisoc/aoy001
openalex publication_date 2018/01/29 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Fictional uses of fictional proper names are the uses one finds in the fiction in which the names in question are introduced. Such uses are not genuinely referential: they rest on pretence. Metafictional uses of proper names (‘Sherlock Holmes was created by Doyle in 1887’) are genuinely referential: they refer to a cultural artefact. In the paper I discuss a third type of use of fictional names: parafictional uses, illustrated by ‘In the story, Holmes is a clever detective’. I try to steer a middle course between two approaches, one that assimilates them to metafictional uses, and another one that assimilates them to fictional uses.