The grammar of self-talk. What different modes of talking reveal about language

Abstract Self-talk has played an important role in theorizing about the function of language in the psychological and philosophical literature. Linguistic investigations of self-talk, however, are scarce. It is shown that there are several modes of self-talk including (i) thinking out loud, which is characterized by the absence of an addressee and (ii) having a conversation with oneself, which is characterized by the presence of a grammatically represented addressee role. In the latter, the person engaged in self-talk may hold the role of the speaker or the addressee. Thus, the grammatical restrictions on self-talk serve as a hitherto underexplored window into the grammatical representation of speaker and addressee roles. Different models for the syntax at the top are compared and an argument is made for Wiltschko’s Grammar of Interactional Language.