Sentence examples for referring term from inspiring English sources

Thus, it apparently cannot be a referring term either, since its alleged referent doesn't exist.

The primary focus in this article will be on the first two of these questions, those concerning the mechanism of reference and whether there is a single mechanism common to each sort of referring term.

Indexicals, on the other hand, are a fundamentally different sort of referring term, for which an entirely different sort of theory is appropriate.

'Ronald McDonald' seems like a referring term, open to existential generalization, in the sense that a sentence like 'Ronald McDonald does not exist' entails 'There is something that does not exist', and 'exists' seems like a predicate that applies or fails to apply to the designation of subject-place terms.

Referring terms are ambiguous when the referents of the term differ from each other in sufficiently important ways.

Referring terms are ambiguous when the referents of a term differ from each other in sufficiently important ways.

Dictionary definitions of referring terms are usually just descriptions of the important features of the referents of those terms.

As such, they are not to be viewed as referring terms but, rather, as "incomplete symbols".

Indeed, it is about nothing at all: for definite descriptions are not referring terms, but existential quantifiers.

The argument seems straightforward so long as we read "Father" and "Son" as merely singular referring terms.

And definite descriptions, given Russell's view of definite descriptions, are not genuine referring terms but are instead quantificational expressions.