Keelefilosoofia raamat
out an existing thing and assert falsely that the thing is nonexistent; nor does
it pick out a Meinongian entity and deny existence of it. It merely assures
us that in fact there was no such winged horse. Similarly, "Sherlock Holmes
never existed" means that there never actually was a legendary English detec-
tive who lived at 221B Baker Street and so on. This is very plausible.
The second direct argument (never given explicitly so far as I know) calls
attention to a kind of clarificatory question. Suppose you hear someone using
a name, say "Lili Boulanger," and you do not know who the speaker is talking
about. You ask who that is. The speaker replies, "Oh, the first woman ever to
have won the Prix de Rome, in 1913, with her cantata Faust et Hélène"; and
that is a proper answer. You asked because, so to speak, you did not under-
stand the name you heard. In order to come to understand it, you had to ask
a "who" question, and the answer had to be a description
annaabi.ee 
