What's in two names?

Abstract

As first pointed out by Saul (1997a), the co-referential names in sentences like (1) and (2) defy substitution salva veritate: (1) 'Clark Kent went into the phone booth, and Superman came out' ; (2) 'I never made it to Karl-Marx-Stadt, but I visited Chemnitz last year'. This paper elaborates and compares two solutions to Saul's substitution problem, both of which turn on an asymmetry between names that share their bearers. According to the first solution there is a semantic distinction between neutral names (like 'Superman' and 'Karl-Marx-Stadt') and restricted names (like 'Clark Kent' and 'Chemnlitz'). According to the second solution, only neutral names are properly used, whereas the use of (what would be) restricted names involves code-switching and pragmatic re-interpretation. As it turns out, the semantic approach deals more easily with changing names as in (2), whereas the pragmatic account is more adequate in explaining hidden identity cases like (1).