Keith Donnellan: Difference between revisions

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=Example=
=Example=
{{mu|lo catra be la smit cu jai fenki|Smith's murderer is insane.}}
 
{{mu|ro catra be la smit cu jai fenki|Whoever killed Smith, he is crazy.}}
 
*Attributive sense: the speaker says this without having any particular person in mind, basing his claim solely on the particularly brutal manner in which Smith has been murdered.  
*Attributive sense: the speaker says this without having any particular person in mind, basing his claim solely on the particularly brutal manner in which Smith has been murdered.  
{{mu|lo catra be la smit cu jai fenki|The killer of Smith is crazy.}}
*Referential sense: Jones has been charged with the murder and has been put on trial, where his behavior is distinctly odd. The speaker (having Jones in mind) utters the same sentence.
*Referential sense: Jones has been charged with the murder and has been put on trial, where his behavior is distinctly odd. The speaker (having Jones in mind) utters the same sentence.


=Definitions=
=Definitions=
*Attributive description
*Attributive description:
*:a speaker who uses a definite description attributively in an assertion states something about whoever or whatever is the so-and-so.  
*:a speaker who uses a definite description attributively in an assertion states something about whoever or whatever is the so-and-so.  
*Referential
*Referential description:
*:a speaker who uses a definite description referentially in an assertion ... uses the description to enable his audience to pick out whom or what he is talking about and states something about that person or thing.
*:a speaker who uses a definite description referentially in an assertion ... uses the description to enable his audience to pick out whom or what he is talking about and states something about that person or thing.


=Implementation in Lojban=
=Polemic=
Lojban has the possibility of explicitly expressing the difference between the two types of descriptions by replacing the [[verb]]-to-[[noun]] converter '''lo''' with '''le''' for referential descriptions:
Some Lojbanists believe that '''[[le]]''' is to be used for referential (or super-referential) sense whereas '''lo''' is to be used for attributive sense.
{{mu|le catra be la smit cu jai fenki|The killer of Smith is crazy.}}
Attributive description is expressed using quantifiers and '''nibli''':
{{mu|ro da zo'u lo du'u da catra la smit cu nibli lo du'u da jai fenki|Whoever killed Smith, he is crazy.}}
Not using '''nibli''' leads to the two statements to mean the same but with different emphasis whereas '''nibli''' has outright different semantics.
 
'''lo''' itself is out of this philosophy.


=References=
=References=
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*[http://en.bookfi.org/book/1519749 Analytical philosophy, by Donnellan Keith]
*[http://en.bookfi.org/book/1519749 Analytical philosophy, by Donnellan Keith]
*[http://en.bookfi.org/book/1535756 Substances as Individuals, by Donnellan Keith]
*[http://en.bookfi.org/book/1535756 Substances as Individuals, by Donnellan Keith]
*[http://aix1.uottawa.ca/~romlab/pubs/Rivero.1977.pdf Specificity and existence: a reply, by Maria-Luisa Rivero, 1976]

Latest revision as of 06:36, 30 September 2014

Keith Donnellan is an American philosopher who published notorious articles on the philosophy of language.

His concept of the difference between referential and attributive descriptions was proposed for implementation in Lojban.

Example

ro catra be la smit cu jai fenki
Whoever killed Smith, he is crazy.
  • Attributive sense: the speaker says this without having any particular person in mind, basing his claim solely on the particularly brutal manner in which Smith has been murdered.
lo catra be la smit cu jai fenki
The killer of Smith is crazy.
  • Referential sense: Jones has been charged with the murder and has been put on trial, where his behavior is distinctly odd. The speaker (having Jones in mind) utters the same sentence.

Definitions

  • Attributive description:
    a speaker who uses a definite description attributively in an assertion states something about whoever or whatever is the so-and-so.
  • Referential description:
    a speaker who uses a definite description referentially in an assertion ... uses the description to enable his audience to pick out whom or what he is talking about and states something about that person or thing.

Polemic

Some Lojbanists believe that le is to be used for referential (or super-referential) sense whereas lo is to be used for attributive sense.

References