Definite descriptions in game-theoretical semantics

pp. 137-160

in: Jaakko Hintikka, The game of language, Berlin, Springer, 1983

Abstract

The many attractive features of Russell's treatment of definite descriptions, or as we shall also call them, the-phrases, make its failure as an overall theory ever so poignant.¹ This failure needs few comments. Even if, pace Strawson, Russell's theory works perfectly when applied to definite descriptions like "the present King of France", it fail to account for the uses of the-phrases that pick up earlier reference. We shall call these the anaphoric uses of the-phrases. (1) is an example of such a use: