He sees definite descriptions as quantifiers; he is suggesting that definite descriptions are quantifier phrases. The difference between ‘some’ and ‘the’. When ‘some’ is come together with a singular noun phrase, it means: there is at least one object which… And ‘the’ put together with a singular noun phrase means: there is exactly one object which… Russell is concerned with this sentence: ‘The present King of France is bald’, and according to him the sentence...
He sees definite descriptions as quantifiers; he is suggesting that definite descriptions are quantifier phrases. The difference between ‘some’ and ‘the’. When ‘some’ is come together with a singular noun phrase, it means: there is at least one object which… And ‘the’ put together with a singular noun phrase means: there is exactly one object which… Russell is concerned with this sentence: ‘The present King of France is bald’, and according to him the sentence means that there is exactly one object which is now King of France, and that object is bald. He draws two morals from his analysis of phrases like ‘some man’, which apply to his analysis of definite descriptions too. On his analysis, the phrase ‘the present King of France’ is not a name of the present King of France, any more than ‘some man’ is a name of some man. And the phrase doesn’t have a meaning on its own although it is meaningful enough in terms of a sentence. Based on these points Russell came to a conclusion and started the development of his thoughts that the superficial appearance of a sentence is not a reliable guide to its real structure.
