Use–mention_distinction

The use–mention distinction is the distinction between using a word (or phrase, etc.) and mentioning it. In written language, mentioned words or phrases often appear between quotation marks or in italics; some authorities insist that mentioned words or phrases always be made visually distinct in this manner. Used words or phrases (more common than mentioned ones) do not bear any typographic distinction.

For example, the following two sentences illustrate use and mention of the word "cheese":

• Cheese is derived from milk.
• Cheese is derived from a word in Old English.

The first sentence is a statement about the substance cheese. It uses the word cheese to describe its referent. The second is a statement about the word cheese. It mentions the word without using it.

There are different methods for indicating the mentioning of a term. One is to place it in italics: Chicago contains three vowels. Another, slightly more technical method used in philosophy and linguistics is to place the term in single quotes: When I say \'honey,\' I refer to the nectar and not my friend. Note that the British system normally reverses the American, and uses single quotes for what someone has said, and double quotes for indicating a term that is mentioned.

American: Larry said, "The word \'bee\' has three letters." United Kingdom: Peter said, \'The term "bumbershoot" refers to an umbrella.\'

Usage

Putting a statement in quotation marks and attributing it to its originator is a useful way of turning a disputed statement about a subject into an undisputed statement about another statement.

Self-referential statements mention themselves or their components, often producing logical paradoxes. There are many examples of self reference and use–mention distinction in the works of Douglas Hofstadter. A mathematical analogy of self referential statements lies at the core of Gödel\'s Incompleteness Theorem.

For example, the two versions of a seemingly paradoxical statement below can be interpreted to have two distinct meanings, the second of which resolves the apparent paradox:

• The use–mention distinction is not strictly enforced here.
• The use–mention distinction is not strictly enforced here.

Use–mention and suppositio

The general property of terms changing their reference depending on the context was called suppositio (substitution) by classical logicians. It describes how one has to substitute a term in a sentence based on its meaning—that is, based on the term\'s referent. In general, a term can be used in several ways. For nouns, they are:

• Properly with a real referent: "That is my cow" (assuming it exists). (personal supposition)
• Properly with a generic referent: "Any cow gives milk." (simple supposition)
• Properly but with a non-real referent: "Ulysses\'s cow was big."
• Improperly by way of metaphor: "Your sister is a cow". (improper supposition)
• As a pure term: "Cow has only three letters". (material supposition)

The last use is what invokes the use–mention distinction.

Use–mention in philosophy

The use–mention distinction is especially important in analytic philosophy. The standard notation for mentioning a term is to put it in quotation marks. Failure to properly distinguish use from mention can produce false or misleading statements, so care should be taken to avoid that circumstance:

• \'Copper\' contains six letters, and is not a metal.
• Copper is a metal, and contains no letters.

See also

• Map-territory relation
• Quasi-quotation

External links

• "Robert And The Use-Mention Distinction", by William A. Wisdom, c. 2002
• "On the use of Quotation Marks", by Ralph E. Kenyon, Jr. PhD, 29 December 1992, Revised 21 October 1993, Published in Etc: A Review of General Semantics, Vol. 51 No 1, Spring 1994. (accessed: 26 August 2006)

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