Proper name

A proper name, when it occurs in a proposition, is always, at least according to one of the possible ways of analysis (where there are several), the subject that the proposition or some subordinate constituent proposition is about, and not what is said about the subject.

We might clarify some of the points made in this chapter by comparing paradigm proper names with degenerate proper names like "the Bank of England".

Proper names are poetry in the raw. Like all poetry they are untranslatable. Someone who is translating into English a German novel, the hero of which is named Heinrich, will leave the name as it is; he will not Anglicize it into Henry.

For instance, the proper name ‘Jessica Alba’ consists of two proper nouns: ‘Jessica’ and ‘Alba’.

For quotations using this term, see Citations:proper name.