Disimplicature

Speranza

Buchanan has argued for a Gricean solution to well-known counterexamples to direct reference theories of content. 

And Peet develops a way to change the counterexample so that it seems to speak against Buchanan’s own proposal. 

We might argue, however, that both theorists fail to notice a significant distinction between the kinds of cases at issue. 

Those appearing to count against direct reference theory must be described such that utterers have false beliefs about the identity of the object to which they intend to refer, beliefs that appear relevant to the determination of what constitutes communicative success. 

This suggests, further, that cases of this sort do not provide a basis for robust generalizations about singular reference.

Or not, of course!