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1、ReferenceWithoutReferentsReferenceisacentraltopicinphilosophyoflanguage,andhasbeenthemainfocusofdiscussionabouthowlanguagerelatestotheworld.R.M.Sainsburysetsoutanewapproachtotheconcept,whichpromisestobringtoanendsomelong-standingdebatesinsemantictheory.Thereisasinglecategoryofreferringexpre
2、ssions,allofwhichdeserveessentiallythesamekindofsemantictreatment.Includedinthiscategoryarebothsingularandpluralreferringexpressions(‘Aristotle’,‘ThePleiades’),complexandnon-complexreferringexpressions(‘ThePresidentoftheUSAin1970’,‘Nixon’),andemptyandnon-emptyreferringexpressions(‘Vulcan’,‘
3、Neptune’).Referringexpressionsaretobedescribedsemanti-callybyareferencecondition,ratherthanbybeingassociatedwithareferent.Inarguingforthesetheses,Sainsbury’sbookpromisestoendthefruitlessoscillationbetweenMilliananddescriptivistviews.Millianviewsinsistthateverynamehasareferent,andfindithardt
4、ogiveagoodaccountofnameswhichappearnottohavereferents,oratleastarenotknowntodoso,likeonesintroducedthrougherror(‘Vulcan’),oneswhereitisdisputedwhethertheyhaveabearer(‘Patanjali’)andonesusedinfiction.Descriptivisttheoriesrequirethateachnamebeassociatedwithsomebodyofinformation.Thesetheoriesf
5、lyinthefaceofthefactnamesareusefulpreciselybecausethereisoftennooverlapofinformationamongspeakersandhearers.Thealternativepositionforwhichthebookarguesisfirmlynon-descriptivist,thoughitalsodoesnotrequireareferent.Amuchbroaderviewcanbetakenofwhichexpressionsarereferringexpressions:notjustnam
6、esandpronounsuseddemonstratively,butalsosomecomplexexpressionsandsomeanaphoricusesofpronouns.Sainsbury’sapproachbringsreferenceintolinewithtruth:noonewouldthinkthatasemantictheoryshouldassociateasentencewithatruthvalue,butitiscommonlyheldthatasemantictheoryshouldassociateasentencewithatruth
7、condition,aconditionwhichanarbitrarystateoftheworldwouldhavetosatisfyinordertomakethesentencetrue.Therightanalogyisthatasemantictheoryshouldassociateareferringexpressionwithareferencecondition,aconditionwhichanarbitraryobjectwouldhavetosatisfyinordertobe
