ReferentA referent (ˈrɛfərənt) is a person or thing to which a name – a linguistic expression or other symbol – refers. For example, in the sentence Mary saw me, the referent of the word Mary is the particular person called Mary who is being spoken of, while the referent of the word me is the person uttering the sentence. Two expressions which have the same referent are said to be co-referential. In the sentence John had his dog with him, for instance, the noun John and the pronoun him are co-referential, since they both refer to the same person (John).
Mediated reference theoryA mediated reference theory (also indirect reference theory) is any semantic theory that posits that words refer to something in the external world, but insists that there is more to the meaning of a name than simply the object to which it refers. It thus stands opposed to direct reference theory. Gottlob Frege is a well-known advocate of mediated reference theories. Similar theories were widely held in the middle of the twentieth century by philosophers such as Peter Strawson and John Searle.
Dénotation et connotationEn linguistique, pour un signe quelconque (en particulier des mots et expressions du langage parlé ou écrit), le sens signifié dénotatif, la dénotation, est distinct du sens ou signifié connotatif, la connotation. La dénotation est le sens littéral d'un terme, que l'on peut définir (et trouver dans le dictionnaire). La connotation est l'ensemble des éléments de sens qui peuvent s'ajouter à ce sens littéral (et qui peuvent se trouver ou non dans le dictionnaire).
Hespéros fils de JapetIn Greek mythology, Hesperus (ˈhɛspərəs; Hésperos) is the Evening Star, the planet Venus in the evening. He is one of the Astra Planeta. A son of the dawn goddess Eos (Roman Aurora), he is the half-brother of her other son, Phosphorus (also called Eosphorus; the "Morning Star"). Hesperus' Roman equivalent is Vesper (cf. "evening", "supper", "evening star", "west"). By one account, Hesperus' father was Cephalus, a mortal, while Phosphorus was the star god Astraios.
Theory of descriptionsThe theory of descriptions is the philosopher Bertrand Russell's most significant contribution to the philosophy of language. It is also known as Russell's theory of descriptions (commonly abbreviated as RTD). In short, Russell argued that the syntactic form of descriptions (phrases that took the form of "The aardvark" and "An aardvark") is misleading, as it does not correlate their logical and/or semantic architecture.
Gottlob FregeGottlob Frege (), de son nom complet Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege, né le à Wismar et mort le à Bad Kleinen, est un mathématicien, logicien et philosophe allemand, créateur de la logique moderne et plus précisément du calcul propositionnel moderne : le calcul des prédicats. Il est en outre considéré comme l'un des plus importants représentants du logicisme. C'est à la suite de son ouvrage Les Fondements de l'arithmétique, où il tente de dériver l'arithmétique de la logique, que Russell lui a fait parvenir le paradoxe qui porte son nom.
Causal theory of referenceA causal theory of reference or historical chain theory of reference is a theory of how terms acquire specific referents based on evidence. Such theories have been used to describe many referring terms, particularly logical terms, proper names, and natural kind terms. In the case of names, for example, a causal theory of reference typically involves the following claims: a name's referent is fixed by an original act of naming (also called a "dubbing" or, by Saul Kripke, an "initial baptism"), whereupon the name becomes a rigid designator of that object.
Théorie de la référence directeUne théorie de la référence directe est une conception de la signification qui affirme que le sens d'une proposition réside dans ce à quoi elle fait référence dans le monde. Soutenue par Mill dans le Système de logique (1843), elle a été critiquée par la suite au nom d'une théorie de la référence indirecte. Dans le Système de logique (1843), John Stuart Mill distinguait entre connotation et dénotation. Le terme de connotation désignait la relation entre un nom (particulier ou générique) et une ou plusieurs caractéristiques.
