Abstract
M.A. (African Languages)
Philosophical opinions on the status of proper names are widely
divergent. They range from one extreme, expressed by Mills
(1986:19), that proper names are mere labels which denote but do
not connote, to the view that proper names are abbreviated or
disguised definite descriptions.
It is only comparatively recently that philosophers acknowledged
the contribution that the discipline of linguistics could make
toward the solution of this problem. Especially the realization
that languages can be analysed as a rule-governed structure made
a strong impact as we see in Searle (Annegarn, 1975:32) and later
authors. Philosophers of an earlier period, the "ordinary
language" philosophers, avoided any systematic theoretical
concern.
Searle (Annegarn, 1975: i), in particular, studied certain general
features of language such as reference, truth, meaning and
necessity by focusing attention on speech acts. But for the
enigma of proper names he could do no better than taking up an
intermediate position: proper names are logically connected with
the object to which they refer "in a loose sort of way".