Embedded definite descriptions: Russellian analysis and semantic puzzles

Mind 109 (435):443-454 (2000)
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Abstract

A sentence containing a number of definite descriptions, each lying within the scope of its predecessor, is naturally read as asserting the uniqueness of a sequence of objects satisfying the descriptions. The project of providing a general uniform procedure for eliminating embedded definite descriptions that gets this and other logical forms right is impeded by several puzzles.

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Steve Kuhn
Georgetown University

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References found in this work

Descriptions.Stephen Neale - 1990 - MIT Press.
Principia mathematica.Alfred North Whitehead & Bertrand Russell - 1910 - Cambridge,: University Press. Edited by Bertrand Russell.
Descriptions.S. Neale - 1996 - Critica 28 (83):97-129.
Uniqueness in definite noun phrases.Craige Roberts - 2003 - Linguistics and Philosophy 26 (3):287-350.
Truth and singular terms.Tyler Burge - 1974 - Noûs 8 (4):309-325.

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