Abstract

It is common in any natural language for more than one thing to have phonologically or orthographically the same proper name. There are two different views on this. According to one, in such a case there are distinct names which have the same pronunciation or spelling. According to the other, in such a case there is only one name and its referent can vary from context to context. It seems that when you discuss the latter view (the ambiguity view of proper names), you need to take the ontological problems of words into account.