 For the sake of both clarity and brevity, this entry will refrain from venturing too deeply into the detailed debates regarding the meaning, syntactic form, or function of the various terms we’ll be looking at. Rather, we’ll focus instead on what, if anything, can be said about the nature of linguistic reference in general. For a more detailed look at the idiosyncrasies of these various terms, please see the entries on  names,  descriptions, and  indexicals.  See also the related entry on  natural kinds,