Stage theory and proper names

In the contemporary debate about the nature of persistence, stage theory is the view that ordinary objects (artefacts, animals, persons, etc.) are instantaneous and ??persist?? by being suitably related to other instantaneous objects. In this paper I focus on the issue of what stage theorists should say about the semantics of ordinary proper names, like ??Socrates?? or ??London??. I consider the remarks that stage theorists actually make about this issue, present some problems they face, and finally offer what I take to be the best alternative available for them.     

Large-scale databases of proper names

Few tools for research in proper names have been available—specifically, there is no large-scale corpus of proper names. Two corpora of proper names were constructed, one based on U.S. phone book listings, the other derived from a database of Usenet text. Name frequencies from both corpora were compared with human subjects’ reaction times (RTs) to the proper names in a naming task. Regression analysis showed that the Usenet frequencies contributed to predictions of human RT, whereas phone book frequencies did not. In addition, semantic neighborhood density measures derived from the HAL corpus were compared with the subjects’ RTs and found to be a better predictor of RT than was frequency in either corpus. These new corpora are freely available on line for download. Potentials for these corpora range from using the names as stimuli in experiments to using the corpus data in software applications.     

Semantic knowledge and the acquisition of proper names

This article explores the proposal that children learn proper names by exploiting implicit universal semantic knowledge. This knowledge directs children to interpret object-directed words used under particular conditions as proper names referring to specific objects. Provided that caregivers use proper names as object-directed labels under the same conditions, the knowledge can explain children's mastery of these expressions.     

Memory for proper names: A review

Abstract

Proper names have a frustrating propensity to be forgotten. A considerable amount of laboratory and naturalistic data has demonstrated this vulnerability of proper names to memory errors both in learning new names and in retrieving familiar names. Moreover, retrieval of familiar proper names is especially affected in old age and in some cases of aphasia. This pattern of vulnerability offers an important opportunity for gaining insight into basic memory processes and architecture by identifying the characteristics of proper names that disrupt memory.     

Testing effects for common versus proper names

The present study examines the testing effect as a function of item meaningfulness. In Experiments 1 and 2 participants studied lists of words that could serve as proper names or occupations (e.g., Mr Baker or baker), with the items given in a name context for one group and an occupation context for a second group. During an intervening phase participants restudied some items and were given a cued recall test (Experiment 1) or a free recall test (Experiment 2) on other items. On a final free recall test memory was better for tested items than studied items in both the name and occupation contexts. Experiment 3 followed the same procedure as Experiment 1, except that participants studied lists of proper names that do not have alternative uses in the English language (e.g., Mr Anderson) or studied concrete nouns (e.g., letter). Tested items were better remembered on a final test than studied items, and there was no interaction with type of study material. These results show that the testing effect extends to proper names, material that is commonly assumed to differ from common names on several dimensions.     

The use-conditional indexical conception of proper names

In this essay I will defend a novel version of the indexical view on proper names. According to this version, proper names have a relatively sparse truth-conditional meaning that is represented by their rigid content and indexical character, but a relatively rich use-conditional meaning, which I call the (contextual) constraint of a proper name. Firstly, I will provide a brief outline of my favoured indexical view on names in contrast to other indexical views proposed in the relevant literature. Secondly, two general motivations for an indexical view on names will be introduced and defended. Thirdly, I will criticize the two most popular versions of the indexical view on names: formal variable accounts and salience-based formal constant accounts. In the fourth and final section, I will develop my own use-conditional indexical view on names in three different steps by confronting an initial version of this view with three different challenges.     

Russellians can solve the problem of empty names with nonsingular propositions

Synthese - Views that treat the contents of sentences as structured, Russellian propositions face a problem with empty names. It seems that those sorts of things cannot be the contents of sentences...     

Preschoolers' knowledge about the appearance of proper names

Preschoolers' knowledge of the appearance of proper names was tested in three experiments with 25 boys and 22 girls from low-income families. Children from a Head Start program, whose parents signed a permission letter, participated. Their ages ranged from 3 yr. 6 mo. to 5 yr. 6 mo. (M = 52.2 mo., SD = 4.9). When shown consonant-vowel-consonant trigrams such as Rit or baF or dEg with various capitalization patterns, the children showed a tendency to recognize that CVC trigrams with the first letter capitalized or all letters capitalized were the ones most likely to represent a person's name. When their own names were substituted, which typically contained more than three letters, their performance was markedly better. Children also had a strong tendency to consider trigrams of Latin letters as more likely to be a person's name than trigrams of non-Latin characters (e.g., Sanskrit).