W. v. Quine and N. Goodman

pp. 127-160

in: Guido Küng, Ontology and the logistic analysis of language, Berlin, Springer, 1967

Abstract

For Quine and Goodman the distinction between names that name something and so-called syncategorematic signs, is of special importance. In order to answer the question "How and what do predicate signs represent?" in their sense, we must first know whether predicate signs are genuine names or merely syncategorematic words. As we shall see, Quine has found a criterion that indicates precisely which words the user of a frege-russellian language regards as genuine names: they are those words in respect of which quantification is permitted; i.e., those that name an object in the value-range of the variables.