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Single Idea 10461

[from 'What Does It Take to Refer?' by Kent Bach, in 19. Language / B. Reference / 5. Speaker's Reference ]

Full Idea

To illustrate speakers' intentions, consider the anaphoric reference using pronouns in these: "A cop arrested a robber; he was wearing a badge", and "A cop arrested a robber; he was wearing a mask". The natural supposition is not the inevitable one.

Clarification

'Anaphora' refers back to something earlier in the sentence

Gist of Idea

What a pronoun like 'he' refers back to is usually a matter of speaker's intentions

Source

Kent Bach (What Does It Take to Refer? [2006], 22.2 L4)

Book Reference

'Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Language', ed/tr. Lepore,E/Smith,B [OUP 2008], p.546


A Reaction

I am a convert to speakers' intentions as the source of all reference, and this example seems to illustrate it very well. 'He said..' 'Who said?'