ABSTRACT
I give the name “egocentric particulars” to words of which the meaning varies with the speaker and his position in time and space. The four fundamental words of this sort are “I”, “this”, “here”, and “now”. The word “now” denotes a different point of time on each successive occasion when I use it; the word “here” denotes a different region of space after each time when I move; the word “I” denotes a different person according to who it is that utters it. Nevertheless there is obviously some sense in which these words have a constant meaning, which is the reason for the use of the words. This raises a problem, but before considering it let us consider what other words are egocentric, and especially what words are really egocentric although intended not to be so.
