Handlungen in Form von Sätzen

How can the phenomenon of reference to particular individuals be explained? This book examines the ongoing debate about the semantic relevance of Keith Donnellan's distinction between referential and attributive uses of descriptions and about the semantic foundation of direct reference. A new solution to this debate is proposed, based on the philosophy of Josef König: Donnellan's distinction can be semantically justified by the linguistic practical/alethic distinction, following König's distinction between practical and theoretical sentences. Direct reference is semantically grounded by the notion of communication as speech act that is addressed to someone.