View source for Keith Donnellan

Keith Donnellan is an American philosopher who published notorious articles on the philosophy of language.

His concept of the difference between referential and attributive descriptions was proposed for implementation in Lojban.

=Example=

{{mu|ro catra be la smit cu jai fenki|Whoever killed Smith, he is crazy.}}

*Attributive sense: the speaker says this without having any particular person in mind, basing his claim solely on the particularly brutal manner in which Smith has been murdered. 
{{mu|lo catra be la smit cu jai fenki|The killer of Smith is crazy.}}
*Referential sense: Jones has been charged with the murder and has been put on trial, where his behavior is distinctly odd. The speaker (having Jones in mind) utters the same sentence.

=Definitions=
*Attributive description:
*:a speaker who uses a definite description attributively in an assertion states something about whoever or whatever is the so-and-so. 
*Referential description:
*:a speaker who uses a definite description referentially in an assertion ... uses the description to enable his audience to pick out whom or what he is talking about and states something about that person or thing.

=Polemic=
Some Lojbanists believe that '''[[le]]''' is to be used for referential (or super-referential) sense whereas '''lo''' is to be used for attributive sense.

=References=
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Donnellan A Wikipedia article]
*[http://en.bookfi.org/book/1533075 Reference and Definite Descriptions, by Donnellan Keith]
*[http://en.bookfi.org/book/1519749 Analytical philosophy, by Donnellan Keith]
*[http://en.bookfi.org/book/1535756 Substances as Individuals, by Donnellan Keith]
*[http://aix1.uottawa.ca/~romlab/pubs/Rivero.1977.pdf Specificity and existence: a reply, by Maria-Luisa Rivero, 1976]