Donnellan On Attribution And Reference Idiolects

Part I of Essay
Keith Donnellan, a man most well known amongst most philosophers for his work on reference and definite descriptions, illustrates on attribution and referential idiolects. He begins by explaining that there are two uses of definite descriptions, but first we must establis ....

Part II of Essay
.... the attributive use and the referential use. A speaker exercising the attributive use of definite descriptions asserts something about “whoever or whatever is the so-and-so”, whereas a speaker using a definite description referentially enables his audience to choose or decide whom or whatever he is talking about and asserts something in lieu of that person or thing. ...To assert something about whatever or whoever fits that description; but in the referential use the definite description is merely one tool for doing a certain job-calling a ....