Causal reference and inverse scope as mixed quotation

Abstract

Causal reference falls out from an account of mixed quotes that can be nested and applied to constructions: a speaker’s use of a term is a mixed quote of the occasion on which the speaker acquired the term. Mixed quotes thus pervade shared language, despite the lack of quotation marks. This theory generates inverse scope under left to-right evaluation, because an earlier quantifier can be quoted and outscoped. It also predicts the failure of polarity licensing in *‘Alice introduced anybody to nobody’.