FICTIONAL OBJECTS IN MODERN PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE

Propositions about fiction pose a number of problems for referential semantics. They are caused by the underlying contention that can be named existential monism. In the paper the author presents some solutions for the problem of denoting the names of fictional objects, e.g. the rigid designation of names and the possible worlds framework. These approaches are nevertheless unsatisfactory because they were introduced to achieve two goals that cannot be realized at the same time: to solve the problem of the existence of the objects that the words refer to and to explain the understanding of language. In the paper he argues that the proper solution consists in distinguishing between existential ontology, e.g. that proposed by Roman Ingarden, and a theory of language that explains the phenomenon of understanding without any ontological commitments, e.g. Donald Davidson theory of meaning.