Descriptions and Situations

Abstract

Abstract Genuine singular terms, such as proper names or (presumably) demonstrative pronouns, are referential; by which I mean that their conventional use is to refer. For every such term there is a linguistic convention in virtue of which, whenever is used, there must be a unique object x such that the speaker uses to refer to x. The modal ‘must’ here indicates that the condition is a felicity condition: a condition which must be satisfied for the use of the expression to be felicitous. Note that, in stating the convention, I have taken the notion of ‘reference’ as primitive. The notion of reference at stake here is the pragmatic notion: speaker’s reference, as it is sometimes called.

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