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In formal semantics and philosophy of language, a definite description is a denoting phrase in the form of "the X" where X is a noun-phrase or a singular common noun. The definite description is proper if X applies to a unique individual or object. For example: "the first person in space" and "the 42nd President of the United States of America", are proper. The definite descriptions "the person in space" and "the Senator from Ohio" are improper because the noun phrase X applies to more than one thing, and the definite descriptions "the first man on Mars" and "the Senator from Washington D.C." are improper because X applies to nothing. Improper descriptions raise some difficult questions about the law of excluded middle, denotation, modality, and mental content.
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a definitedescription is a denoting phrase in the form of "the X" where X is a noun-phrase or a singular common noun. The definitedescription is proper...
analyzes definitedescriptions similarly to indefinite descriptions, except that the individual is now uniquely specified. Take as an example of a definite description...
a symmetric matrix M {\displaystyle M} with real entries is positive-definite if the real number z T M z {\displaystyle z^{\operatorname {T} }Mz} is...
definiteness is a semantic feature of noun phrases that distinguishes between referents or senses that are identifiable in a given context (definite noun...
For Russell, ordinary proper names are abbreviated definitedescriptions. Here definitedescription refers again to the type of formulation "The…" which...
theory of definitedescriptions). Kripke argued—against both the Russellian analysis and several attempted refinements of it—that such descriptions could...
Positive-definite bilinear form Positive-definite function Positive-definite function on a group Positive-definite functional Positive-definite kernel Positive-definite...
and advocates his theory of denoting phrases, according to which definitedescriptions and other "denoting phrases ... never have any meaning in themselves...
Herzegovina). In medicine, a disease entity is an illness due to a particular definite cause or to a specific pathological process. While a disease entity is...
other uniquely applying description. This is known as the descriptivist theory of names. Because Frege used definitedescriptions in many of his examples...
forming a sentence nor even being linguistic (e.g. traffic signs convey definite meaning which is either true or false). Propositions are also spoken of...
in particular: Negative-definite bilinear form Negative-definite quadratic form Negative-definite matrix Negative-definite function This article includes...
happened to a person. A name functions as a rigid designator, while a definitedescription does not. (One could say 'If Aristotle had died young, he would never...
the analysis of proper names and definitedescriptions. He criticized Bertrand Russell's theory of definitedescriptions for overlooking the distinction...
heavily focused upon definitedescriptions and referent accessibility. Theories have been presented for why direct referent descriptions occur in discourse...
term appears to have originated at a much later date, and without a definitedescription; they are first mentioned in John de Mandeville's fourteenth-century...
sign, the quadratic form is called positive-definite or negative-definite. A semidefinite (or semi-definite) quadratic form is defined in much the same...
names of the sort described above as "abbreviated definitedescriptions" (see Theory of descriptions). Hence Joseph R. Biden may be an abbreviation for...
applying Frege's new logical apparatus, most famously in his theory of definitedescriptions in "On Denoting", published in Mind in 1905. Russell here argues...
Problematic expressions include names of fictional characters, definitedescriptions and intentional attitude reports. Actualists have often responded...
In quantum mechanics, counterfactual definiteness (CFD) is the ability to speak "meaningfully" of the definiteness of the results of measurements that...
In mathematics, positive semidefinite may refer to: Positive semidefinite function Positive semidefinite matrix Positive semidefinite quadratic form Positive...
egg cells"; "had a sister" → "had a parent who had a female child". Description logic Connotation Extension (predicate logic) Extensionality Intensional...
by first formulating their conceptual descriptions and then classifying the entities according to the descriptions. Conceptual clustering developed mainly...
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