Sentence examples for singular definite from inspiring English sources

In effect, singular definite descriptions are just special cases of Sharvy's generalized theory of descriptions.

The central challenge to the descriptivist theory is that there is reason to suspect that proper names are not semantically equivalent to singular definite descriptions.

In the case of singular definite descriptions (like 'the dog') we are still denoting the maximal set of dogs in the domain of discourse (since in this case there is only one dog).

So far we have discussed singular definite and indefinite descriptions (and the possibility that names are descriptions) but as it turns out these types of descriptions are probably not the most commonly occurring descriptions in English.

Here, we will consider two further sorts of terms that are often thought of as referential — natural kind terms and singular definite descriptions — as well as whether the notion of reference can be productively extended even to a range of terms to which it does not intuitively apply.

Section 4 will consist of a brief discussion of two further sorts of expressions which are often classified as referring terms — natural kind terms and (singular) definite descriptions — along with several sorts of expressions which are typically not conceived of as referring terms — e.g. quantifiers, prepositions, verbs, and adverbs.

In a contextual definition apparent singular terms (either definite descriptions or class terms) are eliminated through rules for defining the entire sentences in which they occur.

Another category of singular terms is definite descriptions.

What definite singular terms like 'the gold in the…' "designate is a quite distinct type of item, concrete but not particular" (1972, p. 28).

While tensed statements about temporally definite singular events have a changing truth-value, the corresponding non-tensed dicta are unchangingly true or false (Nuchelmans 1973, 177 189; for some later examples, see also Nuchelmans 1980; Lewis 1995; Goris 2001).

If he meant that the temporal necessity of a present event does not imply that such an event necessarily takes place in circumstances of that type, this is an unsatisfactory 'statistical' attempt to avoid the problem that changeability as a criterion of contingency makes all temporally definite singular events necessary (Hintikka 1973).