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Chapter 8 - Personal and semantic reference

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2012

By
Gerald Vision
Edited by
Athanassios Raftopoulos  and
Peter Machamer
Athanassios Raftopoulos
Affiliation:
University of Cyprus
Peter Machamer
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
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Summary

This chapter focuses on the personal reference (p-reference) in which the subject is a person or speaker, and on semantic reference (s-reference) in which the subject is a linguistic expression. It is confined to singular terms, including proper names, pronouns, definite descriptions (perhaps some indefinite ones), sobriquets, common count nouns such as 'table', 'horse', 'snowflake', mass nouns such as 'snow' and 'gold', and some common non-count nouns such as 'red' (or 'redness'). The word 'term' in the phrase 'singular term' can mislead. So as not to prejudge some crucial issues, the singulars may also be tokens or vehicles in thought contents, loosely known as concepts. The chapter talks about the bearers of truth-value. It uses the terms 'proposition' and 'utterance' loosely to designate them. The literature contains a number of terms fitting the target other than reference, including denotation, designation, and naming.

Keywords

epistemological constructivismperceptionrealismsemantic constructivismscientific theoriesreference
Type
Chapter
Information
Perception, Realism, and the Problem of Reference , pp. 161 - 182
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2012

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