Mental Files in Flux

Fran-s Recanati has pioneered the 'mental file' framework for thinking about concepts and how we refer to the world in thought and language. He now explores what happens to mental files in a dynamic setting: Recanati argues that communication involves interpersonal dynamic files.

François Recanati received his Ph.D. from the University of Paris 1 (Sorbonne) in the late seventies and has been a research fellow at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in Paris ever since. In addition, he is a Professorial Fellow at Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales, and the Director of Institut Jean-Nicod in Paris. His published works include Meaning and Force (CUP 1988), Direct Reference : From Language to Thought (Blackwell 1993), Oratio Obliqua, Oratio Recta (MIT Press/Bradford Books 2000), Literal Meaning (CUP 2004), Perspectival Thought (OUP 2007), Truth-Conditional Pragmatics (OUP 2010) and Mental Files (OUP 2012). He is a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, an honorary doctor of Stockholm University, and a recipient of the CNRS silver medal.

Part 1: Coreference de jure and the flow of information
1: Coreference de jure in the mental file framework
2: Factivity, transparency, and weak coreference de jure
3: Transitivity and strong coreference de jure
4: Coreference de jure and sentence grammar
5: Cognitive dynamics
Part 2: Interpersonal coordination of mental files
6: Indexical thought
7: Communication across contexts
8: Dynamic files in communication
Appendix: Communication with centred contents: a survey