  In his 1989a, Kaplan emphasizes the role of pointing gestures in fixing the reference (and content) of a demonstrative. More precisely, he says that the reference of a demonstrative in a context is fixed by a demonstration, which he describes as “typically, though not invariably, a (visual) presentation of a local object discriminated by a pointing.” (1989a, p. 490). Kaplan changes his mind in his 1989b. He there states that he had always thought that a demonstration is “typically directed by the speaker’s intention to point at a perceived individual on whom he has focused.” He then calls such intentions directing intentions and says that he has come to “regard the directing intention, at least in the case of perceptual demonstratives, as criterial, and to regard the demonstration as a mere externalization of this inner intention.” (1989b, p. 582)