Keelefilosoofia raamat
and to description semantics generally will also translate into objections to
the Description Theory of referring; the Description Theory will predict the
wrong referent (think of the Gödel/Schmidt example in objection 5, chapter
3) or no referent at all (as when there is no particular description the speaker
has in mind (objection 1) or in indefinite cases, as in objection 6).
Kripke sketches a better idea. He begins memorably (1972/1980: 91):
"Someone, let's say, a baby, is born . . . ." (I think we should grant Kripke's
assumption that the neonate is a baby. There is such a thing as being too
picky.) He continues:
[The baby's] parents call him by a certain name. They talk about him to
their friends. Other people meet him. Through various sorts of talk the
name is spread from link to link as if by a chain. A speaker who is on the