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5. Theory of Logic / F. Referring in Logic / 1. Naming / d. Singular terms

[any phrase intended to pick out a single object]

16 ideas
Frege ascribes reference to incomplete expressions, as well as to singular terms [Frege, by Hale]
     Full Idea: Frege ascribes reference not only to singular terms, but equally to expressions of other kinds (the various kinds of incomplete expressions).
     From: report of Gottlob Frege (On Sense and Reference [1892]) by Bob Hale - Abstract Objects Ch.3 Intro
     A reaction: The incomplete expressions presumably make reference to concepts. Frege may not seem, therefore, to have a notion of reference as what plugs language into reality - except that he is presumably a platonist about concepts.
"Nobody" is not a singular term, but a quantifier [Russell, by Lycan]
     Full Idea: Though someone just beginning to learn English might take it as one, "nobody" is not a singular term, but a quantifier.
     From: report of Bertrand Russell (On Denoting [1905]) by William Lycan - Philosophy of Language Ch.1
     A reaction: If someone replies to "nobody's there" with "show him to me!", presumably it IS a singular term - just one that doesn't work very well. If you want to get on in life, treat it as a quantifier; if you just want to have fun...
Russell rewrote singular term names as predicates [Russell, by Ayer]
     Full Idea: Russell's theory used quantification to eliminate singular terms, which could be meaningful without denoting anything. He reparsed such sentences so they appeared as predicates instead of names.
     From: report of Bertrand Russell (On Denoting [1905]) by A.J. Ayer - The Central Questions of Philosophy IX.A.2
An expression refers if it is a singular term in some true sentences [Wright,C, by Dummett]
     Full Idea: For Wright, an expression refers to an object if it fulfils the 'syntactic role' of a singular term, and if we have fixed the truth-conditions of sentences containing it in such a way that some of them come out true.
     From: report of Crispin Wright (Frege's Concept of Numbers as Objects [1983]) by Michael Dummett - Frege philosophy of mathematics Ch.15
     A reaction: Much waffle is written about reference, and it is nice to hear of someone actually trying to state the necessary and sufficient conditions for reference to be successful. So is it possible for 'the round square' to ever refer? '...is impossible to draw'
Varieties of singular terms are used to designate token particulars [Rey]
     Full Idea: We designate token particulars with singular terms, such as: proper names, numerals, definite descriptions, demonstratives, pronouns or variables.
     From: Georges Rey (Contemporary Philosophy of Mind [1997], 1.1.1)
Singular terms refer, using proper names, definite descriptions, singular personal pronouns, demonstratives, etc. [Lycan]
     Full Idea: The paradigmatic referring devices are singular terms, denoting particular items. In English these include proper names, definite descriptions, singular personal pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, and a few others.
     From: William Lycan (Philosophy of Language [2000], Ch. 1)
     A reaction: This list provides the agenda for twentieth century philosophy of language, since this is the point where language is supposed to hook onto the world.
Singular terms refer if they make certain atomic statements true [Hale/Wright]
     Full Idea: Anyone should agree that a justification for regarding a singular term as having objectual reference is provided just as soon as one has justification for regarding as true certain atomic statements in which it functions as a singular term.
     From: B Hale / C Wright (The Metaontology of Abstraction [2009], §9)
     A reaction: The meat of this idea is hidden in the word 'certain'. See Idea 10314 for Hale's explanation. Without that, the proposal strikes me as absurd.
A 'singulariser' converts a plural like 'number of' to a syntactically neutral form [Cartwright,H, by Hossack]
     Full Idea: Helen Cartwright calls 'a number of' a 'singulariser', an expression whose linguistic function is to convert to a syntactically neutral form an expression whose semantic value remains plural. It is a great convenience grammatically.
     From: report of Helen Cartwright (On Plural Reference and Set Theory [1993]) by Keith Hossack - Plurals and Complexes 2
     A reaction: Compare Hofweber's Idea 10004, suggesting it is a crucial psychological convenience for reasoning, as well as a 'grammatical' convenience.
Often the same singular term does not ensure reliable inference [Hale]
     Full Idea: In 'the whale is increasingly scarce' and 'the whale is much improved today' (our pet whale), we cannot infer that there is something that is much improved and increasingly scarce, so this singular term fails Dummett's criterion based on inference.
     From: Bob Hale (Abstract Objects [1987], Ch.2)
     A reaction: [much rephrased] This is not just a problem for a few cunningly selected examples. With contortions almost any singular term can be undermined in this way. Singular terms are simply not a useful guide to the existence of abstracta.
Plenty of clear examples have singular terms with no ontological commitment [Hale]
     Full Idea: Some examples where a definite singular noun phrase is not 'genuine' (giving ontological commitment): 'left us in the lurch'; 'for my mother's sake'; 'given the sack'; 'in the nick of time', 'the whereabouts of the PM', 'the identity of the murderer'.
     From: Bob Hale (Abstract Objects [1987], Ch.2.II)
     A reaction: These are not just freakish examples. If I 'go on a journey', that doesn't involve extra entities called 'journeys', just because the meaning is clearer and a more commonplace part of the language.
We should decide whether singular terms are genuine by their usage [Hale]
     Full Idea: The criteria for a genuine singular term should pick out not the singular terms themselves but their uses, since they may be genuine in one context and not another.
     From: Bob Hale (Abstract Objects [1987], Ch.2.II)
     A reaction: [rephrased] This will certainly meet problems with vagueness (e.g. as the reference of a singular term is gradually clarified).
If singular terms can't be language-neutral, then we face a relativity about their objects [Hale]
     Full Idea: If we lack any general, language-neutral characterization of singular terms, must not a parallel linguistic relativity infect the objects which are to be thought of as their non-linguistic correlates?
     From: Bob Hale (Abstract Objects [1987], Ch.2.III)
     A reaction: Hale thinks he can answer this, but I would have thought that this problem dooms the linguistic approach from the start. There needs to be more imagination about how very different a language could be, while still qualifying as a language.
An adjective contributes semantically to a noun phrase [Hofweber]
     Full Idea: The semantic value of a determiner (an adjective) is a function from semantic values to nouns to semantic values of full noun phrases.
     From: Thomas Hofweber (Number Determiners, Numbers, Arithmetic [2005], §3.1)
     A reaction: This kind of states the obvious (assuming one has a compositional view of sentences), but his point is that you can't just eliminate adjectival uses of numbers by analysing them away, as if they didn't do anything.
'Singular terms' are not found in modern linguistics, and are not the same as noun phrases [Hofweber]
     Full Idea: Being a 'singular term' is not a category in contemporary syntactic theory and it doesn't correspond to any of the notions employed there like that of a singular noun phrase or the like.
     From: Thomas Hofweber (Ontology and the Ambitions of Metaphysics [2016], 02.3)
     A reaction: Hofweber has researched such things. This is an important objection to the reliance of modern Fregeans on the ontological commitments of singular terms (as proof that there are 'mathematical objects').
If two processes are said to be identical, that doesn't make their terms refer to entities [Hofweber]
     Full Idea: Identity between objects occurs in 'How Mary makes a chocolate cake is identical to how my grandfather used to make it', but does this show that 'how Mary makes a chocolate cake' aims to pick out an entity?
     From: Thomas Hofweber (Ontology and the Ambitions of Metaphysics [2016], 02.3)
     A reaction: This is a counterexample to the Fregean thought that the criterion for the existence of the referent of a singular term is its capacity to participate in an identity relation. Defenders of the Fregean view are aware of such examples.
Mental files are the counterparts of singular terms [Recanati]
     Full Idea: Mental files are the mental counterparts of singular terms.
     From: François Recanati (Mental Files [2012], 3.3)
     A reaction: A thoroughly satisfactory theory. We can build up a picture of filing merging, duplication, ambiguity, error etc. Eventually neuroscience will map the whole system, and we will have cracked it.