Natural languages are riddled with context-sensitivity. One and the same string of words can express many different meanings on occasion of use, and yet we understand one another effortlessly, on the fly. How do we do so? What fixes the meaning of context-sensitive expressions, and how are we able to recover the meaning so effortlessly? -/- This book offers a novel response: we can do so because we draw on a broad array of subtle linguistic conventions that determine the interpretation (...) of context-sensitive items. Contrary to the dominant tradition, which maintains that the meaning of context-sensitive language is underspecified by grammar and that interpretation relies on non-linguistic cues and speakers' intentions, this book argues that meaning is determined entirely by discourse conventions, rules of language that have largely been missed and the effects of which have been mistaken for extra-linguistic effects of an utterance situation on meaning. The linguistic account of context developed here sheds new light on the nature of linguistic content and the interaction between content and context. At the same time, it provides a novel model of context that should constrain and help evaluate debates across many subfields of philosophy where appeal to context has been common, often leading to surprising conclusions such as epistemology, ethics, value theory, metaphysics, metaethics, and logic. (shrink)

The article investigates the autobiographical aspects of Ryszard Kapuściński’s reportage pieces. The journalist’s complete works provide the material for this study. Autobiographism is understood here broadly, not only as the presence of a selfnarrative in the documentary accounts, but also as the implicit influence of the foreign correspondent’s life experiences on his interpretation of the events he reports. Kapuściński’s work early was primarily influenced by the experiences of poverty during the Second World War and the post-war period, the post-war loss (...) of his little homeland as Poland entered the orbit of the Soviet Union’s influence, as well as his involvement in a socialist youth organization. These personal experiences constitute an important context for the interpretation of his works, which is shown using examples from his reports. (shrink)

We analyze the relationship between corporate social responsibility and the stock market performance in the post-global financial crisis period. A new measure of social responsibility by Thomson Reuters, called the ESG Combined Score, is used. As a novel feature of our analysis, socially responsible engagement is divided into the strategic activities closely related to the examined companies’ core business and the remaining secondary activities. The results of the fixed effects regression show a positive and statistically, as well as economically, significant (...) impact of the strategic activities on the corporate stock market performance of companies. This impact is up to 103% higher compared to the secondary activities. The empirical results suggest that if companies aim to increase their share prices via the corporate social responsibility channel, they should strategically select their socially responsible initiatives. (shrink)

Recently, there has been a shift away from traditional truth-conditional accounts of meaning towards non-truth-conditional ones, e.g., expressivism, relativism and certain forms of dynamic semantics. Fueling this trend is some puzzling behavior of modal discourse. One particularly surprising manifestation of such behavior is the alleged failure of some of the most entrenched classical rules of inference; viz., modus ponens and modus tollens. These revisionary, non-truth-conditional accounts tout these failures, and the alleged tension between the behavior of modal vocabulary and classical (...) logic, as data in support of their departure from tradition, since the revisionary semantics invalidate some of these patterns. I, instead, offer a semantics for modality with the resources to accommodate the puzzling data while preserving classical logic, thus affirming the tradition that modals express ordinary truth-conditional content. My account shows that the real lesson of the apparent counterexamples is not the one the critics draw, but rather one they missed: namely, that there are linguistic mechanisms, reflected in the logical form, that affect the interpretation of modal language in a context in a systematic and precise way, which have to be captured by any adequate semantic account of the interaction between discourse context and modal vocabulary. The semantic theory I develop specifies these mechanisms and captures precisely how they affect the interpretation of modals in a context, and do so in a way that both explains the appearance of the putative counterexamples and preserves classical logic. (shrink)

Studie se zabývá analýzou politické teorie modu vivendi britského politického filosofa Johna Graye, přičemž za její hlavní cíl lze považovat především určení autorovy ideologické pozice v kontextu liberálního myšlení, jakož i posouzení koherence Grayovy teorie s koncepcí liberalismu strachu. Na základě kritické reflexe převažujícího univerzalistického pojetí liberalismu článek identifikuje a analyzuje stěžejní atributy Grayova specifického uchopení liberální teorie v podobě ideálu modu vivendi, etické teorie hodnotového pluralismu, univerzálního minima a hodnoty tolerance. V návaznosti na tuto identifikaci je následně zkoumán i (...) etický rozměr Grayovy politické teorie, jehož charakteristika umožňuje zhodnotit, do jaké míry lze autorovu teorii interpretovat v kontextu liberálního myšlení. V této souvislosti se studie rovněž snaží ukotvit Grayovu tvorbu v širším rámci alternativních projektů liberální teorie, když usiluje o prokázání principiálních paralel mezi Grayovým politickým modelem a politickým myšlením Bernarda Williamse jakožto stěžejním představitelem tzv. liberalismu strachu. Výzkum těchto paralel pak přispívá především k nastolení otázek souvisejících s možností důsledného odlišování politické a morální teorie a chápání konfliktu jakožto neodmyslitelné součásti politické reality v rámci současného liberalismu. The paper aims to analyse the political theory of modus vivendi by political philosopher John Gray and to determine the ideological standpoints of Gray's theory within the context of liberal thought as well as to assess its coherence with the concept of liberalism of fear. On the basis of a critical reflection of the prevailing universalistic conception of liberalism, the study identifies and analyses essential attributes of Gray's specific but controversial political theory: the ideal of modus vivendi; ethical theory of value pluralism; universal minimum and the value of toleration. Having interpreted all those main parts of the concept, the study is supposed to clarify also the ethical dimension of Gray's theory which makes it possible to decide to what extent the author might be identified as a liberal thinker. In this regard, the study endeavours to embed Gray's thought in a broader framework of alternative projects of liberal theory by demonstrating fundamental parallels between Gray's model and political thought of Bernard Williams as the main theoretician of liberalism of fear. Investigations of those parallels thus contributes towards articulating questions concerning the possibility of consistently distinguishing between the political and the moral theory as well as perception of a conflict as an ineradicable part of political reality in the framework of contemporary liberalism. (shrink)

Traditionally, pronouns are treated as ambiguous between bound and demonstrative uses. Bound uses are non-referential and function as bound variables, and demonstrative uses are referential and take as a semantic value their referent, an object picked out jointly by linguistic meaning and a further cue—an accompanying demonstration, an appropriate and adequately transparent speaker’s intention, or both. In this paper, we challenge tradition and argue that both demonstrative and bound pronouns are dependent on, and co-vary with, antecedent expressions. Moreover, the semantic (...) value of a pronoun is never determined, even partly, by extra-linguistic cues; it is fixed, invariably and unambiguously, by features of its context of use governed entirely by linguistic rules. We exploit the mechanisms of Centering and Coherence theories to develop a precise and general meta-semantics for pronouns, according to which the semantic value of a pronoun is determined by what is at the center of attention in a coherent discourse. Since the notions of attention and coherence are, we argue, governed by linguistic rules, we can give a uniform analysis of pronoun resolution that covers bound, demonstrative, and even discourse bound readings. Just as the semantic value of the first-person pronoun ‘I’ is conventionally set by a particular feature of its context of use—namely, the speaker—so too, we will argue, the semantic values of other pronouns, including ‘he’, are conventionally set by particular features of the context of use. (shrink)

The standing tradition in theorizing about meaning, since at least Frege, identifies meaning with propositions, which are, or determine, the truth-conditions of a sentence in a context. But a recent trend has advocated a departure from this tradition: in particular, it has been argued that modal claims do not express standard propositional contents. This non-propositionalism has received different implementations in expressivist semantics and certain kinds of dynamic semantics. They maintain that the key aspect of interpretation of modal claims is the (...) characteristic dynamic effect they have on the context. I argue that pessimism about truth-conditions arises from an overly simplistic picture of content, context and their interaction. While I agree with the critics that an important aspect of modal meaning is the dynamic effect modals have on the context, I argue that they have mischaracterized the nature and the complexity of this effect. A more nuanced account of the interaction between modals and context shows that far from being incompatible with propositional meaning, the dynamic aspect of meaning is precisely what allows us to predict the correct propositional content of an utterance. (shrink)

J. L. Austin’s article ‘Truth’ is a remarkable example of his method of ordinary language analysis by which he investigates the notoriously recalcitrant philosophical concept of truth. This paper attempts to specify the character of Austin’s truth conception, defending the view that despite his opinion of it being a semantic one, it is actually of a mixed nature. Correspondence is what determines the truth or falsity of a statement, but semantics delineates the segment of the world to which our statements (...) correspond. An explication of the notions of demonstrative and descriptive conventions is given in order to add flash to the outlinegiven by Austin. (shrink)

Die Reise von Róewicz an die Ouellen der Kultur des Mittelmeerraumes ist ein der vielen Versuche, die den Ziel hatten, die Weltmitte neu aufzubauen. Die vergeblichen, metamorphischen Reisen des verlorenen Sohnes an die mit seiner Geburt genetisch verbundenen Orte, die missgelungenen Versuche der Wiederholung dieser Struktur, liessen den Dichter seine Hoffnung woanders suchen: die Wiege der Mittelmeerraumkultur, loci communes aller Topeen, Archetypen und Mythen unseres Kulturkreises. El in Arcadie ego beweist, dass die Italiamythe nichts mehr Neues zeigt, ihre Schönheit wurde (...) sprachlos. Die Gegenwart – der perfekte Mörder der Vergangenheit – zeigte die Unfruchtbarkeit der für die vergangenen Generationen mehrdeutigen Mythe des italienischen Kulturparadises. Meine Erorerung ist ein Versuch, den Poem im Zusammenhang mit dem Bankrott der bisherigen Esthetiksprachen abzulesen. (shrink)

In the history of Miron Białoszewski as a poet the main issues are on the exploitation of commonplace and the continuation of literary tradition of low and high culture. Apart from the mentioned traditional literary genres, allusions to certain literary texts and the visible traces of Hindu ideas, one can correspondingly find here references to the Biblical symbolism, the combination of elements from various artistic spheres and polemics with traditional literary patterns. In my study I described some particular references to (...) high literary culture and presented the examples of metatextual and intertextual references to such culture. At the same time I strove to explain the poet’s motives for using them. (shrink)

Der Band Matka odchodzi von Różewicz ist ein Buch über die Familie des Dichters. Zwischen der personlich Erklärung: „Ich bin ein Dichter”, und der ergreifenden Erinnerung: „Das Schönste und Wertwolle bei uns zu Hause ist die Muter”, ist ein Teil der Geschichte der Różewicz-Familie enthalten. Das ist auch ein Buch über eine alte Frau – die Muter, die einzige Ikone des für Różewicz charakteristischen Stils, die keine Banalität erlitten hat und den Weltzerfall nicht bewiest. Die Unabhängigkeit des Buches hat keinen (...) autonomischen Charakter, sondern ist eine schriftliche Bezeugungsweise der Ich – Identität. In den Band, in dem mehrere Lippenbekenntnisse von dem Beruf des Verfassers zu finden sind, gibt es kein einziges Gedicht. Man kann also keinesfalls einer Frage nach der originalität des Buches entweichen. Ich habe vor allem die Antwort darauf in Erwägung gezogen. (shrink)

Although rituals are believed to lower anxiety, the underlying mechanism of anxiety reduction has not been explained well enough. According to Boyer and Liénard (2006), ritualized behavior decreases the anxiety levels because it swamps working memory. This blocks anxious thoughts’ access to consciousness. As a result, ritualized behavior lowers anxiety temporarily but maintains it in the long run. In the article, I analyze what processes should be engaged in ritualized behavior to bring the aforementioned outcomes. I propose that ritualized behavior (...) has anxiolytic properties if it preoccupies consciousness without placing too many demands on cognitive control. While conscious preoccupation with ritualized behavior should reduce anxiety, cognitive control load related to efforts to concentrate on ritualized behavior may bring immediate paradoxical effects of self-regulation, i.e., anxiety increases. Moreover, since anxiety disrupts attentional control capabilities, ritualized behavior should not be too cognitively demanding if an anxious person is to perform it. (shrink)

This volume addresses the intriguing issue of indirect reports from an interdisciplinary perspective. The contributors include philosophers, theoretical linguists, socio-pragmaticians, and cognitive scientists. The book is divided into four sections following the provenance of the authors. Combining the voices from leading and emerging authors in the field, it offers a detailed picture of indirect reports in the world’s languages and their significance for theoretical linguistics. Building on the previous book on indirect reports in this series, this volume adds an empirical (...) and cross-linguistic approach that covers an impressive range of languages, such as Cantonese, Japanese, Hebrew, Persian, Dutch, Spanish, Catalan, Armenian, Italian, English, Hungarian, German, Rumanian, and Basque. (shrink)

The Rigidity Thesis states that no rigid term can have the same semantic content as a nonrigid one. Drawing on Dummett (1973; 1991), Evans (1979; 1982), and Lewis (1980), Stanley (1997a; 1997b; 2002) rejects the thesis since it relies on an illicit identification of compositional semantic content and the content of assertion (henceforth, assertoric content). I argue that Stanley’s critique of the Rigidity Thesis fails since it places constraints on assertoric content that cannot be satisfied by any plausible notion of (...) content appropriately related to compositional semantic content. For similar reasons, I also challenge a recent two-dimensionalist defense of Stanley by Ninan (2012). The moral is far-reaching: any theory that invokes a distinction between semantic and assertoric contents is unsatisfactory unless it can plausibly explain the connection between them. (shrink)

We all make mistakes in pronunciation and spelling, but a common view is that there are limits beyond which a mistaken pronunciation or spelling becomes too dramatic to be recognized as of a particular word at all. These considerations have bolstered a family of accounts that invoke speaker intentions and standards for tolerance as determinants of which word, if any, an utterance tokens. I argue this is a mistake. Neither intentions nor standards of tolerance are necessary or sufficient (individually or (...) jointly) for determining which word an utterance tokens. Instead, drawing in part on empirical research on word production, I offer an alternative account, Originalism-plus-Transfer (OPT), according to which word tokening depends entirely on lexical selection during word production, and on how the selected lexical item is situated within the network of causal/historical connections leading back to its neologizing. Once the elements of my account are in place, as a bonus, we will have resources for a promising answer to the question of word individuation as well. (shrink)

The importance of pedagogy as a science is in exploration and improvement of education as an integral part of the social reality. Theory of education, General pedagogy and Methodics of educational work are the scientific disciplines that are most directly related to examining the educational work, and represent its theoretical and methodological basis in the process of its realization. Educational work provides the essence of the overall education process, since it refers and unites the knowledge, skills, attitudes, beliefs and values (...) of the individual, and its results are seen in developing student’s unique personality. In this paper the focus is on the Methodics of educational work, as a pedagogical discipline which is most closely related to the process of realization of educational work. The aim is through analysis of the basic theoretical and terminological aspects to emphasize its role in the overall education process. Taking into consideration the complexity of educational work and difficulties related to the process of assessment of the outcomes, application of the taxonomy of the affective domain is suggested as a possible approach. Also, the importance of some topics that are particularly relevant in pedagogy is emphasized, but which, due to terminological inconsistencies, are not sufficiently recognized as part of the Methodics of educational work. (shrink)

The traditional view is that 'now’ is a pure indexical, denoting the utterance time. Yet, despite its initial appeal, the view has faced criticism. A range of data reveal 'now’ allows for discourse-bound (i.e., anaphoric) uses, and can occur felicitously with the past tense. The reaction to this has typically been to treat ‘now’ as akin to a true demonstrative, selecting the prominent time supplied by the non-linguistic context or prior discourse. We argue this is doubly mistaken. The first mistake (...) concerns the semantic value of ‘now’, which is not a time, but a state — the consequent state of a prominent event. The second is that ‘now’ is a pure indexical after all, insofar as its interpretation is determined without recourse to extra-linguistic supplementation. Specifically, we argue that any occurrence of 'now’ selects the consequent state of the most prominent event, where event-prominence is linguistically maintained through prominence-affecting updates contributed by coherence relations. Our analysis accounts straightforwardly for a wide range of discourse initial and discourse bound uses of ‘now’, while giving it a simple indexical meaning. (shrink)

The goal of the present paper is to examine Wierzbicka’s (1992, 1998a, 1999) claims that the connection between emotions and the body is encoded and emphasized in Russian to a higher degree than it is in English, and that English favors the adjectival pattern in emotion discourse, while Russian prefers the verbal one. The study analyzes oral narratives elicited through the same visual stimuli from 40 monolingual Russians and 40 monolingual Americans. The results of the quantitative and qualitative analyses of (...) the narrative corpus support Wierzbicka’s claims, suggesting that ‘the reading of the body’ is not a culture- and language-free experience, but is shaped by cultural, social, and linguistic forces, as well as by individual differences. At the same time, neither quantitative nor qualitative differences have been identified with regard to gendered use of emotion discourse. (shrink)

Nowadays, creativity has become one of the most important determinants of the development of modern economy. In it lies the potential for economic success not only of entire regions, but above all of business entities. Although creativity is difficult to define, it more frequently becomes the subject of scholarly considerations. In this study, an attempt was made to explore the climate for creativity because it determines the development of creativity and creative attitudes in creative sectors. The main research goal was (...) to show the importance and pattern of the determinants creating a climate conducive to creativity and its impact on the development of creative industries. The method of the study was a critical analysis of the source literature and the author’s own research. The aim of the work became the basis for formulating the following research hypothesis: recognising the components constituting a pattern of the climate conducive to creativity in the city will enable better development of entities included in the creative sector. In order to achieve the set goal and verify the research hypothesis, quantitative and qualitative research was carried out among representatives of creative professions employed in the creative sectors. (shrink)

Łódź that has never had significant literary tradition, reached a few interesting debuts of young artists during the dramatic years of the war. Tuwim siblings should be named among them, along with Aleksander Kraśniański and Mieczysław Braun. Multi-ethnicity of Lodz resulted in a diverse view on the ongoing conflict, which found its echo in the work of local writers. In their works we find descriptions of both the drama of everyday life as well as questions about the meaning of the (...) war and the future of the reborn state. Since there was problem with publishing books, the local newspaper publishes gave enormous contribution to the development of local literature by publishing the work of young artists on its pages. (shrink)

Judges wield enormous power in modern society and it is not surprising that scholars have long been interested in how judges think. The purpose of this article is to examine how US judges reason on language issues. To understand how courts decide on comprehension of constitutional rights by speakers with Limited English Proficiency (LEP), I analyzed 460 judicial opinions on appeals from LEP speakers, issued between 2000 and 2020. Two findings merit particular attention. Firstly, the analysis revealed that in 36% (...) of the interrogations, LEP speakers were advised of their rights only in English. This means that two decades after the Executive Order 13166 (2000) _Improving Access to Services for Persons with Limited English Proficiency_, law enforcement still doesn’t have adequate resources to advise LEP speakers of their constitutional rights in their primary languages. Secondly, the analysis revealed that some courts treat second language proficiency as an all-or-none phenomenon. This approach results in linguistic discrimination against LEP speakers who cannot comprehend legal language but are denied the services of an interpreter because they can answer basic questions in English. I end the discusson with recommendations for best practices in delivery of constitutional rights. (shrink)

Nowak and Michaelson have done us the service of presenting direct and clear worries about our account of demonstratives. In response, we use the opportunity to engage briefly with their remarks as a useful way to clarify our view.

„Chciałbym poddać krytyce i przezwyciężyć obie tradycje intelektualne, które odgrywają dominującą rolę w badaniach nad umysłem: materialistyczną i dualistyczną. Ponieważ sądzę, że świadomość jest podstawowym zjawiskiem mentalnym, chciałbym zainicjować gruntowne badania nad świadomością, które czyniłyby zadość rygorom, jakie dyktują jej specyficzne własności. Chciałbym również wbić ostatni gwóźdź do trumny teorii głoszącej, że umysł jest programem komputerowym. Wreszcie, zamierzam wysunąć kilka propozycji dotyczących zreformowania naszych badań nad zjawiskami mentalnymi, abyśmy mogli żywic uzasadnione nadzieje na powtórne odkrycie umysłu". Akapit ten pochodzi z (...) wprowadzenia do książki Johna Searle'a Umysł na nowo odkryty. Czy cele stawiane przez autora zostały w pracy osiągnięte? (shrink)

„Chciałbym poddać krytyce i przezwyciężyć obie tradycje intelektualne, które odgrywają dominującą rolę w badaniach nad umysłem: materialistyczną i dualistyczną. Ponieważ sądzę, że świadomość jest podstawowym zjawiskiem mentalnym, chciałbym zainicjować gruntowne badania nad świadomością, które czyniłyby zadość rygorom, jakie dyktują jej specyficzne własności. Chciałbym również wbić ostatni gwóźdź do trumny teorii głoszącej, że umysł jest programem komputerowym. Wreszcie, zamierzam wysunąć kilka propozycji dotyczących zreformowania naszych badań nad zjawiskami mentalnymi, abyśmy mogli żywic uzasadnione nadzieje na powtórne odkrycie umysłu". Akapit ten pochodzi z (...) wprowadzenia do książki Johna Searle'a Umysł na nowo odkryty. Czy cele stawiane przez autora zostały w pracy osiągnięte? (shrink)

The goal of the present paper is to examine Wierzbicka¿s (1992, 1998a, 1999) claims that the connection between emotions and the body is encoded and emphasized in Russian to a higher degree than it is in English, and that English favors the adjectival pattern in emotion discourse, while Russian prefers the verbal one. The study analyzes oral narratives elicited through the same visual stimuli from 40 monolingual Russians and 40 monolingual Americans. The results of the quantitative and qualitative analyses of (...) the narrative corpus support Wierzbicka¿s claims, suggesting that ¿the reading of the body¿ is not a culture- and language-free experience, but is shaped by cultural, social, and linguistic forces, as well as by individual differences. At the same time, neither quantitative nor qualitative differences have been identified with regard to gendered use of emotion discourse. (shrink)

The article presents findings from three studies designed to validate and culturally adapt the Polish version of the Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire, a measure of the cognitive and emotional components of illness representations among oncology patients. The tool is conceptually based on Leventhal’s Self-Regulatory Model. The results of the study 1 show that it can be successfully used in a Polish cultural context as a reliable equivalent to its original English version. Analyses conducted in Study 2 provided good evidence for (...) construct and criterion validity as well as the internal reliability of the IPQ-R subscales. Study 3 revealed that the IPQ-R subscales present good test–retest reliability. Overall, the results show that the Polish version of the IPQ-R provides a comprehensive and psychometrically acceptable assessment of the representation of cancer and can be reliably used in studies involving Polish oncology patients. (shrink)

This book examines the development and adoption of corporate social responsibility in Polish businesses and social and environmental organizations, and analyzes the corresponding impact at the strategic and operational level in these fields. It presents the status quo of CSR in Poland from three main perspectives: The first presents theoretical works based on current research and recent advances, while the next takes a closer look at empirical findings in the different fields of CSR and presents best practices from major international (...) companies operating on the Polish market. Lastly, it presents a range of case studies from small and medium companies and NGOs in Poland and gives an outlook on the future development. Readers will benefit from an in-depth discussion of the opportunities and challenges that businesses and organizations in Poland are currently facing with regard to traditional national values and the influx of new cultural and social dimensions and patterns produced by international businesses entering the Polish market. Taken together, the lessons learned, case studies and snapshots of the latest developments provide a comprehensive overview of the state of the art of CSR in Poland, as well as a blueprint that can be applied to other Eastern European countries. (shrink)

This Handbook introduces key issues in the philosophy of language as currently practised. Topics include: the nature of language; the nature and role of semantic content; the dynamics of communication and speech acts; tense and modality; discourse dynamics; and the expressive, evaluative, subjective, and social aspects of language.

The performative representation of the Spanish Roma woman reveals a historical journey that brings her closer to many symbolic elaborations of the feminine, giving her a special affinity with the imaginary concerning the colonized woman, particularly with the Orientalist vision. Developed initially by the travelling intellectuals in Spain who sought a fusion of the topics of sexualized exoticism, the myth was reworked by local artists and thinkers without undermining their power to silence and make invisible the reality of the most (...) vulnerable and most represented members of the ethnic group, their women. Today, a growing awareness of the importance of collective action directs Roma women to initiatives such as the revision of their historical memory, at the intersection between the external gaze and self-perception. These searches lead to the pioneering creation of community museum institutions, which have arisen around feminine Roma associations and are a symptom of an emerging desire to be heard. Based on the terminological tools shared by women and memory studies, this article seeks the personal dimension of this invitation to listen. The authors analyse a series of interviews with Roma women that investigate the social agents of representation, self-representation and their conceptual and experiential foundations. (shrink)

In this paper, we consider a range of puzzles for demonstratives in the language of thought we had raised in our last philosophical conversation we had with Jerry Fodor. We argue against the Kaplan-inspired indexing solution Fodor proposed to us, but offer a Fodor-friendly account of the demonstratives in the language of thought in its stead, building on our account of demonstrative pronouns in English.

The dominant view maintains that names are directly referring, rigid terms, the primary function of which is to designate an individual. But, as has long been noted, proper names also allow for predicative uses and combine with quantifiers and definite, indefinite, and numerical determiners. Any adequate semantic account of proper names thus must make sense not just of their referential uses but also of their seemingly predicative ones. Predicativists maintain that such uses manifest a name’s semantically encoded, predicative meaning, while (...) the directly referential theorists argue that they involve polysemic or pragmatic, metalinguistic re-interpretations. But while competing accounts differ radically in their analyses of such uses, they all, in the wake of Kripke’s attack on descriptivism, share a common feature: they interpret a predicative use of a name N as expressing (either semantically or pragmatically) the property of being called N. I argue that no such account of predicative uses currently on offer is successful. Indeed, adequately characterizing being called condition is more difficult than has been appreciated. The best attempt—on predicative and directly referential accounts alike—leaves a surprising consequence: names are ambiguous in a way unlike any other we witness with other kinds of lexical items. (shrink)