Names Are Not Predicates
Abstract
There are many examples offered as evidence that proper names are predicates. Not all of these cases speak to a name’s semantic content, but many of them do. Some of these include attributive, quantifier, and ambiguity cases. We will explore those cases here, and we will see that none of them conclusively show that names are predicates. In fact, all of these constructions can be given alternative analyses that eliminate the predicative characteristics of names they feature. These analyses do not involve having names functioning as predicates in any way at all. In attributive cases, the names within them are to be understood as occurring in a comparative construction, not an attributive construction. In the last two sorts of cases, the names that occur are analyzed as part of a more complex referring device for a specific domain, rather than functioning as predicates. Both paraphrases can be given plausible semantic treatments that have significant advantages over their competitors. For this reason, there is less motivation to focus on predicative views of proper names.Author's Profile
My notes
Similar books and articles
On the linguistic complexity of proper names.Ora Matushansky - 2008 - Linguistics and Philosophy 31 (5):573-627.
The Other Francis Bacon: On Non-BARE Proper Names.Ora Matushansky - 2015 - Erkenntnis 80 (2):335-362.
You can call me 'stupid', ... just don't call me stupid.Delia Graff Fara - 2011 - Analysis 71 (3):492-501.
Proper Names and their Fictional Uses.Heidi Tiedke - 2011 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 89 (4):707 - 726.
Denoting concepts, reference, and the logic of names, classes as many, groups, and plurals.Nino B. Cocchiarella - 2005 - Linguistics and Philosophy 28 (2):135 - 179.
On the unification argument for the predicate view on proper names.Dolf Rami - 2014 - Synthese 191 (5):1-22.
Descriptions which have grown capital letters.Brian Rabern - 2015 - Mind and Language 30 (3):292-319.
Perspectival Direct Reference for Proper Names.Ralph William Clark - 2011 - Philosophia 39 (2):251-265.
Some Remarks on an Implementation of the Burgean View of Proper Names.Yu Izumi - 2008 - Proceedings of the Xxii World Congress of Philosophy 39:79-88.
Lexical Individuation and Predicativism about Names.Aidan Gray - 2015 - Thought: A Journal of Philosophy 4 (2):113-123.
Analytics
Added to PP
2015-06-11
Downloads
390 (#29,261)
6 months
18 (#59,134)
2015-06-11
Downloads
390 (#29,261)
6 months
18 (#59,134)
Historical graph of downloads
Author's Profile
References found in this work
From Discourse to Logic: Introduction to Modeltheoretic Semantics of Natural Language, Formal Logic and Discourse Representation Theory.Hans Kamp & Uwe Reyle - 1993 - Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Reference and definite descriptions.Keith S. Donnellan - 1966 - Philosophical Review 75 (3):281-304.