Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1998. Vol. 2. Eger Journal of English Studies.(Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 26)

Studies - Albert Vermes: Proper names in translation: a case study

value which is assigned to it on a particular occasion of use. Thus the referents of the name Emma on two different occasions of utterance may well be two different persons. Words, as such, "do not have reference, but may be used as referring expressions or, more commonly, as components of referring expressions in particular contexts of utterance" (Lyons 1995: 79). Reference as a variable, context-dependent relationship is to be differentiated from denotation

, which is not utterance-dependent but invariant within the language system. Thus we find that while the denotation of an expression is part of the semantics of a language, reference belongs to the realm of pragmatics. A name, on a particular occasion, may refer to an entity without denoting it. This is in correspondence with what Donellan (1975) writes about the attributive and referential uses of definite descriptions: "In the attributive use, the attributive of being the so-and-so is all important, while it is not in the referential use" (102). In effect, here he is making a distinction between describing something as such-and-such and referring to something by using a certain description, in the act of which "the speaker may say something true even though the description correctly applies to nothing" (Donellan 1975: 110). For example, we may successfully refer to somebody at a party as 'the man drinking Martini', even if the person in question is in fact drinking something else. The interesting thing, then, is that proper names and definite descriptions are not essentially different with respect to reference: both can be used to refer successfully without providing a truthful description (Donellan 1975: 113). Probably the only difference between these two kinds of expression is that proper names are used primarily (though by no means necessarily) to refer, while other definite descriptions may just as often be used attributively, in Donellan's terms. However, a name can also be used attributively, perhaps less often but entirely legitimately. Consider the following example. That boy is a real Pele.' Here the name 'Pele' is used to attribute certain qualities to the referent of 'that boy', concerning his skills in football. 3.2 The meaning of a proper name Now if a name can be used attributively, it certainly carries some meaning. The question is, what sort of meaning, or meanings, can it have? Lyons's (1995) view is that names have no descriptive content (denotation) but may have shared associations (connotations) (295). My position is that this view is too simplistic. It may be true with stock names but it is certainly insufficient, for instance, with names which are based on descriptions. This 166