Proper Names: A Millian Account

This book discusses the aims and consequences of the Millian theory of proper names, namely the view that proper names are devices of non-indexical, rigid, and direct reference. Its main aim is that of developing the Millian picture against the background of a wider pre-semantic theory, grounded on the distinction between the regularities of meaning and the characteristics of the use of language. Accordingly, this book devotes particular attention to the interactions between the introduction and replication of proper names on the one hand and their semantic profile on the other, taking into account insights from formal semantics, the philosophy of language, pragmatics, and onomastics. On the basis of this general methodology, it proceeds by refuting certain widespread attacks against Millianism and by highlighting its typically unrecognized potentialities. Among other phenomena, this book discusses the following issues: the Millian approach to the apparent complexity of certain names; the phenomenon of empty names; several puzzles related to fictional names; the import of the predicativist approach; certain intriguing scenarios related to so-called nominal descriptivism; the phenomenon of placeholder names; and the relationships between proper names and non- truth-conditional meaning. --

• | Author: Stefano Predelli
• | Publisher: Oxford University Press
• | Publication Date: May 23, 2017
• | Number of Pages: 192 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Hardcover/Language Arts & Disciplines
• | ISBN-10: 0198778155
• | ISBN-13: 9780198778158