Table Of ContentNamingandIndexicality
How do words stand for things? Taking ideas from philosophical
semanticsandpragmatics,thisbookoffersaunique,detailed,and
criticalsurveyofcentraldebatesconcerninglinguisticreferencein
thetwentiethcentury.Itthenusesthesurveytoidentifyandargue
foranovelversionofcurrent‘two-dimensional’theoriesofmean-
ing,whichgeneralise thecontext-dependency ofindexical expres-
sions. The survey highlights the history of tensions between
semantic and epistemic constraints on plausible theories of word
meaning, from analytic philosophy and modern truth-conditional
semantics to the referentialist and externalist revolutions in the-
oriesofmeaning,andfromtheretothemorerecentreconciliatory
ambition of two-dimensionalists. It clearly introduces technical
semantical notions, theses, and arguments, with easy-to-follow,
step-by-stepguides.Wide-ranginginitsscope,yetofferinganacces-
sible route into a literature that can seem complex and technical,
this will be essential reading for advanced students and academic
researchersinsemantics,pragmatics,andphilosophyoflanguage.
gregory bochner is a Marie Curie Fellow at E´cole Normale
Supe´rieureinParis.AfteraPhDinbothlinguistics(Universite´ Libre
deBruxelles)andphilosophy(InstitutJeanNicod),hehasconducted
research in Bologna, New York, Barcelona, Brussels, Fribourg, and
Paris,andpublishedarticlesonmeaning,reference,andthought.
Published online by Cambridge University Press
KEY TOPICS IN SEMANTICS AND PRAGMATICS
‘KeyTopicsinSemanticsandPragmatics’focusesonthemaintopicsof
studyinsemanticsandpragmaticstoday.Itconsistsofaccessibleyet
challengingaccountsofthemostimportantissues,conceptsandphe-
nomenatoconsiderwhenexaminingmeaninginlanguage.Sometopics
havebeenthesubjectofsemanticandpragmaticstudyformanyyears,
andarere-examinedinthisseriesinlightofnewdevelopmentsinthe
field;othersareissuesofgrowingimportancethathavenotsofarbeen
givenasustainedtreatment.Writtenbyleadingexpertsanddesignedto
bridgethegapbetweentextbooksandprimaryliterature,thebooksinthis
seriescaneitherbeusedoncoursesandseminars,orasone-stop,succinct
guidestoaparticulartopicforindividualstudentsandresearchers.Each
bookincludesusefulsuggestionsforfurtherreading,discussionques-
tions,andahelpfulglossary.
Alreadypublishedintheseries:
MeaningandHumourbyAndrewGoatly
MetaphorbyL.DavidRitchie
ImperativesbyMarkJaryandMikhailKissine
ModificationbyMarcinMorzycki
SemanticsforCountingandMeasuringbySusanRothstein
IronybyJoanaGarmendia
ImplicaturesbySandrineZufferey,JacquesMoeschlerandAnneReboul
TheSemanticsofCasebyOlgaKagan
AttitudeReportsbyThomasGrano
IndirectSpeechActsbyNicolasRuytenbeek
NamingandIndexicalitybyGregoryBochner
Forthcomingtitles:
FrameSemanticsbyHansC.Boas
SemanticsandPragmaticsinSignLanguagesbyKathrynDavidsonZaremba
PropositionalLogicbyAllenHazenandJeffreyPelletier
ModalitiesbyAnastasiaGiannikidouandAldaMari
ConnectivesandDiscourseRelationsbySandrineZuffereyandLiesbeth
Degand
Published online by Cambridge University Press
Naming and Indexicality
GREGORY BOCHNER
E´coleNormaleSupe´rieure,Paris
Published online by Cambridge University Press
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Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781108428453
DOI:10.1017/9781316999073
©GregoryBochner2021
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noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten
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Firstpublished2021
AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Names:Bochner,Gregory,1982–author.
Title:Namingandindexicality/GregoryBochner.
Description:Cambridge,UnitedKingdom;NewYork:CambridgeUniversityPress,
2021.|Series:Keytopicsinsemanticsandpragmatics|Includesbibliographical
referencesandindex.
Identifiers:LCCN2021024654(print)|LCCN2021024655(ebook)|ISBN
9781108428453(hardback)|ISBN9781316999073(ebook)
Subjects:LCSH:Names–Philosophy.|Reference(Philosophy)|Semantics
(Philosophy)|Pragmatics.|BISAC:LANGUAGEARTS&DISCIPLINES/Linguistics/
Semantics
Classification:LCCP325.5.R44B632021(print)|LCCP325.5.R44(ebook)|DDC401/
.456–dc23/eng/20210930
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Published online by Cambridge University Press
Inmemoryofmyfather,
JeanBochner,
withloveandgratitude
Published online by Cambridge University Press
Published online by Cambridge University Press
Contents
Acknowledgements pageix
Introduction 1
1 Descriptivism 7
1.1 MillianismandLinguisticReferentialism 7
1.2 FregeandtheCo-ReferenceProblem 10
1.2.1 TheCo-ReferencePuzzle 10
1.2.2 Frege’sFirstSolution 12
1.2.3 Frege’sSecondSolution 14
1.3 RussellandtheNo-ReferenceProblem 18
1.3.1 TheNo-ReferencePuzzle 18
1.3.2 Russell’sSolution 19
1.4 DescriptivismandPossibleWorldSemantics 25
2 TheReferentialistRevolution 29
2.1 KripkeonProperNames 29
2.1.1 StatingtheDescriptionTheoryofNames 29
2.1.2 DisentanglingtheEpistemicandModalCategories 34
2.1.3 TheModalArgumentandRigidity 36
2.1.4 TheSemanticArgumentandMillianism 40
2.1.5 TheEpistemicArgument 46
2.2 PutnamonNaturalKindTerms 49
2.2.1 TheTwin-EarthArgument 49
2.2.2 DifferentArgumentativeStrategiesand
Conclusions 52
2.2.3 NaturalKindTermsandRigidity 55
2.3 KaplanonDemonstratives 58
2.3.1 IndexicalityandRigidity 58
2.3.2 CharactersandDirectReference 61
3 ThreePuzzlesArisingfromtheRigidityThesis 65
3.1 TheEpistemicTransparencyofContent 65
vii
Published online by Cambridge University Press
viii Contents
3.2 TheModalAnalysisofContent 72
3.3 TheThreePuzzles 75
3.3.1 TheNecessaryAPosteriori 75
3.3.2 TheContingentAPriori 81
3.3.3 EmptyNames 85
4 VarietiesofDescriptivistResponses 89
4.1 SeveralNotionsofRigidity 89
4.1.1 RigidityDeFactoversusRigidityDeJure 89
4.1.2 DirectReferenceandSingularPropositions 98
4.2 Wide-ScopeConventionalism 103
4.3 ActuallyandIndexicalDescriptions 108
4.4 DthatandDemonstrativeDescriptions 113
4.5 ReferentialUsesofDescriptionsandLinguistic
Instrumentalism 119
4.6 TheCausalPictureoftheReferenceofNames 131
4.7 CausalDescriptivism 143
4.8 MetalinguisticDescriptivism 155
4.9 ProvisionalConclusions 170
5 Two-Dimensionalism 174
5.1 TheCoreIdeas 174
5.2 SoamesagainstModalMonism 181
5.3 ThePragmaticInterpretation 190
5.4 TheSemanticInterpretation 203
5.5 TheEpistemicInterpretation 215
5.6 TheMetasemanticInterpretation 222
5.7 TheMetasyntacticInterpretation 228
5.7.1 ExplainingtheNecessaryAPosteriori 237
5.7.2 ExplainingtheContingentAPriori 240
5.7.3 ExplainingEmptyNames 241
5.7.4 Twin-Languages 247
Conclusion 254
Glossary 258
WorksCited 266
Index 282
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Acknowledgements
Writing this book has been a real adventure for me, in all sorts of
senses.Intellectual,ofcourse,withtheexplorationoveryearsofthose
fascinating issues about meaning and reference which, as an
undergraduate student in linguistics, I had recognised as mine.
Geographical, with the numerous house moves to pursue my
research – in Bologna, New York, Barcelona, Brussels, Fribourg,
Paris. And human, because in those intellectual and geographical
travels, which have sometimes been uneasy on a personal level,
Ihavemetmanyoutstandingandbeautifulpeople.
IoweagreatintellectualdebttoFranc¸oisRecanati,myformerPhD
supervisor. I have learned much from him. His ideas always inspire
me, and I admire his exceptional clarity. I thank him for our
discussions, and for his patient and benevolent advice over the
years. I am grateful to my other PhD supervisor in linguistics,
Philippe Kreutz, and to our Belgian colleagues and friends, Philippe
De Brabanter, Bruno Leclercq, and Antonin Thuns, for jointwork in
a fruitful four-year project on reference. I thank them for their
intellectual acuity, their generosity, and the fun of working
together. Thanks also to my advisors during my postdocs: Annalisa
ColivaatCOGITO,PaulBoghossianatNYU,ManuelGarcı´a-Carpintero
at LOGOS, Mikhail Kissine in Brussels, and Martine Nida-Ru¨melin in
Fribourg.IamindebtedtomyteacherMarcDominicy,whosecourses
onsemanticsandpragmaticswhileIwasanundergraduatestudentin
Brussels introduced me to the analytic philosophy of language; his
teachings have influenced me in many ways. I am grateful for the
feedback provided by the audiences of the many conferences and
seminars at which I have given talks over the past years. For
illuminating conversations on reference, I wish to thank two of my
favouritephilosophers:PaulBoghossianandBobStalnaker,whocame
toBrusselsin2018foramemorableworkshoponthetransparencyof
content. Finally, I am indebted to countless colleagues and friends,
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