What is the relation between first-person thought and self-consciousness? On one view, grasp of the first person is based on acquaintance with the self. Self-consciousness makes first-person reference possible, in much the same way in which perceptual acquaintance with objects of ‘outer sense’ makes perceptual demonstratives such as ‘this lemon’ available to us. The ‘perceptual demonstrative mo...

Russian Formalism’s suggestion that artistic literature makes the familiar strange finds echoes in today’s theories of “unnatural narrative.” “Naturalization” seemingly texts understands uncanny literary effects as based on qualities “natural” spoken language. Sifting through structuralist, pre-structuralist, and psychoanalytic musings second-person fiction or similar interpersonal relations, a...

Many European languages have two second person pronouns, one for informal and one for formal address, such as French tu and vous, respectively.1 Such pronouns pose an interesting problem for number agreement. A second person formal subject pronoun triggers plural agreement on the finite verb regardless of whether the referent is one addressee or multiple addressees. Number agreement on non-fini...