Knowing who and knowing how : two ways to understand reference
Dahl, Niklas LU
(2025)
In Synthese
206(3).
- Abstract
In this paper I’m concerned with the functional role of singular terms and how it can be used to construct a pragmatist theory of what it takes to understand reference. I argue that there are, at least, two distinct functions which singular terms fulfil, what I will call the talking-about and picking-out functions respectively. Both are, in one sense, ways that a term aids our understanding by specifying who or what a sentence is about, but they come with different requirements for being understood. To illustrate the distinction, I draw on examples from the literature on reference which give rise to very different intuitions about what it takes to understand a singular term. Finally, I argue that this leads to a parallel distinction... (More)
In this paper I’m concerned with the functional role of singular terms and how it can be used to construct a pragmatist theory of what it takes to understand reference. I argue that there are, at least, two distinct functions which singular terms fulfil, what I will call the talking-about and picking-out functions respectively. Both are, in one sense, ways that a term aids our understanding by specifying who or what a sentence is about, but they come with different requirements for being understood. To illustrate the distinction, I draw on examples from the literature on reference which give rise to very different intuitions about what it takes to understand a singular term. Finally, I argue that this leads to a parallel distinction between two kinds of knowledge-who, depending on which function we are said to know-who with respect to. For the talking-about case, a version of the standard account is sufficient. But to understand an utterance of a singular term with respect to the picking-out function, we need knowledge-who in the sense of knowing how to find what’s referred to sufficiently well to perform a contextually specified action.
(Less)
- author
- Dahl, Niklas
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2025-09
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Knowledge-Who, Reference, Understanding-First
- in
- Synthese
- volume
- 206
- issue
- 3
- article number
- 152
- publisher
- Springer
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:105015051449
- ISSN
- 0039-7857
- DOI
- 10.1007/s11229-025-05208-y
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 734317fa-1aae-4e1f-a094-6459946f377a
- date added to LUP
- 2025-10-16 11:23:41
- date last changed
- 2025-10-16 11:24:08
@article{734317fa-1aae-4e1f-a094-6459946f377a,
abstract = {{<p>In this paper I’m concerned with the functional role of singular terms and how it can be used to construct a pragmatist theory of what it takes to understand reference. I argue that there are, at least, two distinct functions which singular terms fulfil, what I will call the talking-about and picking-out functions respectively. Both are, in one sense, ways that a term aids our understanding by specifying who or what a sentence is about, but they come with different requirements for being understood. To illustrate the distinction, I draw on examples from the literature on reference which give rise to very different intuitions about what it takes to understand a singular term. Finally, I argue that this leads to a parallel distinction between two kinds of knowledge-who, depending on which function we are said to know-who with respect to. For the talking-about case, a version of the standard account is sufficient. But to understand an utterance of a singular term with respect to the picking-out function, we need knowledge-who in the sense of knowing how to find what’s referred to sufficiently well to perform a contextually specified action.</p>}},
author = {{Dahl, Niklas}},
issn = {{0039-7857}},
keywords = {{Knowledge-Who; Reference; Understanding-First}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{3}},
publisher = {{Springer}},
series = {{Synthese}},
title = {{Knowing who and knowing how : two ways to understand reference}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11229-025-05208-y}},
doi = {{10.1007/s11229-025-05208-y}},
volume = {{206}},
year = {{2025}},
}