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19. Language / B. Reference / 1. Reference theories

[way language-terms connect with things in reality]

29 ideas
The Electra: she knows this man, but not that he is her brother [Eucleides, by Diog. Laertius]
Referring to a person, and speaking about him, are very different [Seneca]
Reference is by name, or a term-plus-circumstance, or ostensively, or by description [Reid]
Icons resemble their subject, an index is a natural sign, and symbols are conventional [Peirce, by Maund]
The reference of a word should be understood as part of the reference of the sentence [Frege]
Russell argued with great plausibility that we rarely, if ever, refer with our words [Russell, by Cooper,DE]
How do words refer to sensations? [Wittgenstein]
Reference is inscrutable, because we cannot choose between theories of numbers [Quine, by Orenstein]
Quine says there is no matter of fact about reference - it is 'inscrutable' [Quine, by O'Grady]
In standard logic, names are the only way to refer [Sommers]
How reference is specified is not what reference is [Putnam]
A theory of reference seems needed to pick out objects without ghostly inner states [Rorty]
Is reference the key place where language and the world meet? [Davidson]
With a holistic approach, we can give up reference in empirical theories of language [Davidson]
Any thesis about reference is also a thesis about what exists to be referred to [Cooper,DE]
Reference need not be a hit-or-miss affair [Cooper,DE]
Co-referring terms differ if they have different causal powers [Fodor]
We refer to individuals and to properties, and we use singular terms and predicates [Fodor]
We can refer to fictional entities if they are abstract objects [Bach]
Fictional reference is different inside and outside the fiction [Bach]
You 'allude to', not 'refer to', an individual if you keep their identity vague [Bach]
If apparent reference can mislead, then so can apparent lack of reference [Wright,C]
Behaviourists doubt whether reference is a single type of relation [Kirk,R]
A concept's reference is what makes true the beliefs of its possession conditions [Peacocke, by Horwich]
Frege's 'sense' solves four tricky puzzles [Salmon,N]
'Partial reference' is when the subject thinks two objects are one object [Field,H, by Recanati]
References to the 'greatest prime number' have no reference, but are meaningful [Williamson]
There may be two types of reference in language and thought: descriptive and direct [Recanati]
It is said that proper reference is our intellectual link with the world [Laycock]