“I” AS A SUBJECT OF SELF- AND OTHER-REFERENCE: A LINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVE

The refl exive loop of the Self is the one who says “I” identifi es and simultaneously transforms the real person, the I-speaker, into an object of the (meta-)language, the pronoun “I”, and logical-semantic and linguistic operations can be transferred to this object. The real speaker can only be in the actual world, but a chain of intermediate speakers (indexes) is built between him and a text, and the “appropriation” of a language (in the Benvenistian terms) is assigned to these indexes. It becomes possible to move the “I” to other worlds, times, loci, as well as to establish similar to metaphorical and metonymic relations between the “I” of an actual speaker and diff erent semiotic the “I”-s of an utterance. The pronoun “I” is not only an indication of a speaker, but also a key mechanism for self-, meta- and other-description and correlation of an utterance with its actual and potential contexts. This makes it possible to expand the conception of E. Benveniste, as well as to systematize various theories (Yu. S. Stepanov, G. Lakoff , J. Ross, D. Lewis) where the distinctions were made between diff erent “I”-s (descriptive, performative, I-asa- participant, I-as-an-observer, I-as-a-subject and I-as-a-person, I-as-a-speaker and I-asan-index-of-the-speaker, etc.).