Names vs nouns

Philosophical Studies 179 (11):3233-3258 (2022)
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Abstract

This paper takes issue with the predicativist’s identification of proper names and common count nouns. Although Predicativism emerges precisely to account for certain syntactic facts about proper names, namely, that they behave like common count nouns on occasions, it seems clear that proper names and common count nouns have different properties, and this undermines the thesis that proper names are in fact just common count nouns. The predicativist’s strategy to bridge these differences is to postulate an unpronounced determiner to go with names when they appear to function as singular terms, making them effectively a concealed determiner phrase. In this paper I revisit these differences and argue that the predicativist’s strategy is not well justified and worse, it does not help make proper names and common count nouns unified; rather, it makes proper names exceptional as count nouns. I also discuss the referentialist’s take on names qua predicates and make some suggestions about how the syntactic difference between proper names and count nouns should be understood.

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Laura Delgado
University of Lisbon

Citations of this work

Names are not (always) predicates.Laura Delgado - 2024 - Mind and Language 39 (3):330-347.

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References found in this work

The reference book.John Hawthorne & David Manley - 2012 - Oxford: Oxford University Press. Edited by David Manley.
Names Are Predicates.Delia Graff Fara - 2015 - Philosophical Review 124 (1):59-117.
Reference and proper names.Tyler Burge - 1973 - Journal of Philosophy 70 (14):425-439.
Direct Reference: From Language to Thought.Jennifer M. Saul - 1995 - Philosophical Quarterly 45 (178):134-135.

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