Names and predicates

The objective of this dissertation is two-fold. First, we intend to offer a systematic and comprehensive critique of predicativism, defined as the view that proper names are metalinguistic predicates: according to the most common versions of predicativism, a name 'N' simply expresses the metalinguistic property of being a bearer of the name 'N'. The second objective - closely intertwined with the first - is to develop a detailed morphosyntactic and semantic/pragmatic account of predicative name-uses, as in 'I know two Katherines' ('I know two bearers of the name 'Katherine'') or 'The National Gallery owns to Leonardos' ('The National Gallery owns two paintings by Leonardo'); in this context, we distinguish predicative uses of names as count nouns, mass nouns, adjectives, and verbs. The two objectives lead us to defend a version of the 'type-ambiguity view', according to which names are primarily used as singular terms that refer to their bearers, and only secondarily as predicates to convey metalinguistic or non-metalinguistic properties or relations.