Use-Mention Distinction

There is a level of difficulty in deciding which distinctions should be posted first. Understanding some distinctions will help understanding complexities of others, or maybe give us the tools to explain some distinction in another way. Some are more complex than others, so are perhaps more suited to be posted later on. I will do what I can to get these posts' order appropriate, but apologies if they are not ideal.


The first distinction worth mentioning is the Use-Mention distinction. This distinction is actually a special case of a more general distinction. To understand the general case consider the popular computer game: Minecraft. It is a game about surviving in a randomly generated world. We can manipulate this virtual world in a variety of ways. In order to help us do this, the game allows us to make various tools. So for instance, if I want to gather some iron to make some armour out of, I make myself a pickaxe to do this.

Here I am, using my diamond pickaxe to mine some iron.

Minecraft is very popular. So much so that hundreds of websites have popped up to discuss Minecraft, and what you can do in it. Here is an example of the pickaxe page on the Minecraft wiki:

Now consider the two images above, both are about Minecraft pickaxes. However in the first image, the pickaxe is being used, and in the second image the pickaxe is being discussed, or mentioned.

This illustrates the general case of the use-mention distinction. Tools of any sort can be used, and they can also be talked about/mentioned (especially when it comes to Minecraft).

Now for the specific case. Similarly as above, words can be considered tools of a sort. Words can be used, we use them to refer to things, or express thoughts or ideas etc. Words, like tools, can also be mentioned, that is we can talk about the word itself. 

For example, we can use the word zombie.

i.e. Look out, there is a zombie behind you! 

But we can also mention the word zombie, 

i.e. How do you spell zombie?

In the first case we are using the word zombie to refer to and say something about the undead brain eating people. In the second case we are saying something about the word itself, we are mentioning the word without saying anything about the undead.

Here are some more examples of mentioning various words or other linguistic expressions.

- There is no i in team.

- English is an English word.

- French is not a French word.

- Say cheese!

- Don't do that is a short sentence.

There are a variety of ways we can show we are mentioning a word rather than using it. Above I have been putting the words I'm mentioning in italics, or displaying mentioned sentences on a separate line. However we could also put quotation marks around the word.

i.e. How am I meant to look up "pneumatic" in the dictionary if I don't know how to spell it?

We can also give the linguistic item a name or tag of some sort and then talk about it by its name. 

Q) Don't dig up!

Q has 3 words in it, Q is an exclamation, I am much better at Minecraft after reading Q, etc.

We take advantage of this distinction often, however we don't always succeed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f68wVrXWOhI

Sometimes we purposely mix it up for the sake of jokes or riddles:

"I've taken up speed reading. I can read War and Peace in 20 seconds. It's only 3 words but it's a start."

"I've always been bad at spelling - not sure whether it's nature or nurture."

"What comes once in a minute, twice in a moment, but never in a thousand years?" (The letter "m").

Notice that when we confuse the use-mention distinction our resulting sentences make no sense.

Tom is spelled with a T.

Without the quotes around Tom and T the sentence is saying that Tom, the person himself, is spelled with a T (whatever that is). Firstly, people aren't the kind of things that are spelled at all, so we really need the quotes around Tom. Secondly, what is a T? "T" is a letter, but I don't know what T is.

Why might this matter? Well it might be worthwhile just to be able to explain what's going on in certain jokes. Explaining why jokes are funny usually ruins them, let alone explaining the linguistic feature the jokes turn on. I apologise if I have destroyed a whole genre of jokes for you. 

In logic, having the use-mention distinction at hand is helpful. Aristotle was limited in what he could do with the logic he was developing because he couldn't explain when he was talking about the meaning of the logic, and the structure of the logic. 

Unfortunately, mixing up the use-mention distinction can have some serious consequences for people. Here is a case where a professor was subject to restriction based on criticism of how he used a word, importantly though, he didn't use it, he only mentioned it. Note that the article also gets it wrong.

More recently a Thai born American was put into prison for placing a link on his blog to a banned biography of the Thai monarchy (there are heavy laws in Thailand for talking bad about royalty). There are a number of issues here, but one worth thinking about is whether linking something is a case of using whatever is linked (i.e. to incite dissent), or mentioning it.

- Willo

If you think you have it down no worries, here is a hard exercise to try out. Try and make all the sentences in the following passage true or sensible if they aren't already by adding quotation marks. There are a number of solutions, but the ideal solutions will use the least number of quotation marks. Post your solutions in the comments.

I don't know where I belong, but I know where I belongs: in In. Of course, there is a place for me in the next sentence. It is at the end of time. That sentence, the one with me, but not myself in it, is called S. It does not contain a single word. Of course, S is true. To put it more precisely, It is at the end of time is true if it refers to the place for me. Note also that It is in it. Furthermore, It is at the end of time. is true is true, so S is true. is true. S is not true, because S is not a sentence, even though S is. S is called something, but it is not called anything.

Thanks to Jon, Friends, Notch and anyone who messes up the use-mention distinction for making this post possible.