Keelefilosoofia raamat
tively entail each of the three clauses that make up his analysis of it, and the
three clauses jointly entail the sentence. He now argues that the same is true
of sentences containing proper names.
Take one of the toughest cases of all, a negative existential. (2) ("Pegasus
never existed") is actually true. What, then, could it mean? It does not pick
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
annaabi.ee 
