Fictionally Fictional Object Fiktivno fiktivni objekt : The Alleged Objecthood of Nothingness

Cheung, Wai Lok (author)

Nothingness is inconceivable, yet at the same time it is not inconceivable because it is actually referred to. I propose several accessibility relations to illustrate that nothingness is not an object at all. The fictional object that Sherlock Holmes is belongs to the domain in some semantic context, but the fictionally fictional object that nothingness is does not. Based on this idea, I will also discuss the semantics and the pragmatics of “Nothingness does not exist”. How is it that it is not an object, unlike Sherlock Holmes, but we attribute to it nonexistence?

• Language: English
• Keywords: nothingness, impossibility, fiction, pretence, counterpart
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 01.09.2025
• Number of pages: Str. 153-162
• Numbering: Vol. 13, no. 3
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-178288
• ISSN: 2232-5131
• eISSN: 2350-4226
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4312/as.2025.13.3.153-162
• Publication date in RUL: 22.01.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Asian studies
• Publisher: Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete, Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete, Založba Univerze v Ljubljani
• ISSN: 2232-5131
• COBISS.SI-ID: 265206272

Licences

• License: CC BY-SA 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
• Description: This Creative Commons license is very similar to the regular Attribution license, but requires the release of all derivative works under this same license.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Fiktivno fiktivni objekt : domnevna objektnost ničnosti

Abstract

Ničnost je nepojmljiva, vendar hkrati ni nepojmljiva, ker se dejansko nanaša nanjo. Pred-stavim več razmerij dostopnosti, da ponazorim, da ničnost sploh ni objekt. Fiktivni ob-jekt, ki je Sherlock Holmes, spada v domeno nekega semantičnega konteksta, fiktivno fiktivni objekt, ki je ničnost, pa ne. Na podlagi te ideje obravnavam tudi semantiko izraza »Ničnost ne obstaja«. Kako to, da ni objekt, za razliko od Sherlocka Holmesa, ampak ji pripisujemo neobstoj?

• Keywords: ničnost, nemožnost, fikcija, pretvarjanje, protipostavka