referentially translucent

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<- intensional

A term introduced by Quine to account for expressions that appear to be referentially transparent, but aren't quite. His example is the newspaper headline POPE FOULS UP WILLIAMSBURG TRAFFIC.

The story makes clear that the arrival of His Holiness caused a traffic jam because vehicular traffic was blocked off from various streets. The headline, however, suggests that the Pope did so on purpose. If one further knows that there are many Jews in Williamsburg (at the time spoken of (and still now at the current time of writing], there is a further suggestion of Antisemitism.

  • There's a LOT of stuff going on in such a sentence, but how is this not just (a) indirect causation being treated loosely as direct causation; (b) connotation getting in the way of denotation? If that's all there is, I have a hunch Quine made too much of it... --mi'e nitcion noi bilga lenu tcidu la kuain.
  • .ua mi tugni N .i mi'e xod .i la'ede'u cu se curmi .u'i mi'e ny.