 More recently, a different sort of challenge has emerged for those claiming that token definite descriptions sometimes refer: namely, the difference in meaning which is standardly assumed to mark definite descriptions off from their indefinite cousins (that is, descriptions like ‘a philosopher’ as opposed to ‘the philosopher’) has itself been called into question. Two main reasons have been offered for rejecting a difference in meaning between these sorts of phrases. First, pinning down exactly what this distinction is supposed to amount to has proven remarkably difficult; every aspect of Russell’s original analysis, for instance, has subsequently been cast into doubt. Second, a great many languages turn out to lack anything like the definite/indefinite distinction. This raises the possibility that this distinction is a far less significant, and less well-defined, feature of meaning, even in a language like English, than it is usually taken to be (see Ludlow and Segal (2004); see also Abbott (2008) for counterarguments and the entry on  descriptions  for extensive discussion along with further references).