Ordinary Referring Names in Fictional Contexts

Ordinary proper names can be taken to be referring expressions in non-fictional contexts. But what happens when such names occur in literary works? Within the realist stance, there are two approaches to the issue. Some say that ordinary proper names retain their real world referents in literary fict...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Vecsey, Zoltán
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2022
País:Brasil
Institución:Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC)
Repositorio:Principia (Florianópolis. Online)
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:periodicos.ufsc.br:article/82267
Acceso en línea:https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/principia/article/view/82267
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:fictional characters
fiction-internal contexts
ordinary proper names
realism
reference
representation
Descripción
Sumario:Ordinary proper names can be taken to be referring expressions in non-fictional contexts. But what happens when such names occur in literary works? Within the realist stance, there are two approaches to the issue. Some say that ordinary proper names retain their real world referents in literary fiction. Others argue for the view that ordinary proper names are related there to surrogate referents. It can be pointed out, however, that both approaches create a conceptual tension within the realist doctrine. Fiction-internal contexts are incompatible with any reference-based interpretation of names. The proposal of this paper is, therefore, a shift in perspective: instead of sticking to the notion of reference, the behaviour of ordinary names should be described in terms of representation.