Full Idea
If one is referring to whatever happens to satisfy a description, and one would be referring to something else were it to have satisfied the description instead, this is known as 'weak' reference,...but surely this is not reference at all.
Gist of Idea
It can't be real reference if it could refer to some other thing that satisfies the description
Source
Kent Bach (What Does It Take to Refer? [2006], 22.1 s7)
Book Reference
'Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Language', ed/tr. Lepore,E/Smith,B [OUP 2008], p.529
A Reaction
Bach wants a precise notion of reference, as success in getting the audience to focus on the correct object. He talks of this case as 'singling out' some unfixed thing, and he also has 'alluding to' an unstated thing. Plausible view.