Individual Concepts and Attitude Reports

Abstract

This paper argues that de dicto reports of the form 'x believes [that ....[_DetP the [_NP...]] . . . . . ]' are de re reports where the res is the individual concept which corresponds to '[_DetP the [_NP . . . ]'. This claim is based on the observation that definite descriptions project existence from complement clauses of attitude reports, even in those cases where the reporter and the bearer of the attitude do not have the same description "in mind."