Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-xm8r8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-02T00:40:05.708Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 8 - Personal and semantic reference

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2012

Athanassios Raftopoulos
Affiliation:
University of Cyprus
Peter Machamer
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
Get access

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.
Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×