This paper discusses the viability of using the inflexible indexical/non-indexical difference for markers of conversational first-person reference (such as, in English, the first-person pronoun ‘I’), universal and culture-specific aspects of self-referring and potential English language devices employed uniquely and unequivocally for expressing the most common self-reference of wording ‘cognitive access to oneself’ ( Chierchia, 1989). Pragmatic universals underlying the variety in conveying first-person reference are also reviewed.