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Fictional Characters and Their Names
Title / Series / Name
Publication Volume
Publication Issue
Pages
Authors
Editors
Keywords
existence
fiction
fictional character names
fictional characters
negative existentials
reference
Language and Linguistics
Philosophy
Linguistics and Language
fiction
fictional character names
fictional characters
negative existentials
reference
Language and Linguistics
Philosophy
Linguistics and Language
URI
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14018/26899
Abstract
Fictional characters do not really exist. Names of fictional characters refer to fictional characters. We should divorce the idea of reference from that of existence (the picture of the name as a tag has limited applications; the Predicate Calculus, with its existential quantifier, does not adequately reflect the relevant concepts in natural language; and model theory, with its domains, might also have been misleading). Many puzzle-cases are resolved this way (among other things, there is no problem assigning negative existential statements the appropriate truth values). And fictional characters, although not existing, have real powers through their representations, which are real.
Topic
Publisher
Place of Publication
Type
Journal article
Date
2022
Language
ISBN
Identifiers
10.26333/sts.xxxvi1.02