New Book Launch: Proper Names, Quasi Proper Names, De se Thoughts, and Communication (Springer, 2025)

What it is. A sharp, cross-disciplinary monograph by Alessandro Capone (University of Messina) that bridges philosophy of language, pragmatics, and linguistics to rethink how proper names work in real communication - where reference, presupposition, and the speaker’s de se (self-involving) perspective all meet. It appears in Springer’s series Perspectives in Pragmatics, Philosophy & Psychology, vol. 32.

Why it matters. Capone tackles long-standing puzzles - what names do in speech acts (including non-assertives like calling and scolding), how referential acts differ from referential presuppositions, and how “quasi-proper names” and de se contents reshape standard theories of meaning and reference. The book adds a conceptual toolkit that is useful for scholars working on names across everyday talk, literature, media, and legal/administrative discourse.

Inside the book (Table of Contents).

1. Presuppositions as Pragmemes: The Case of Exemplification Acts

2. On the Distinction Between Reference and Referential Presuppositions

3. Proper Names as Speech Acts

4. Quasi-Proper Names and Pragmatics

5. Thinking, Expressing and Reporting “De se” Thoughts (and the Problem of Proper Names).

Publication facts.

• eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-95013-1 (pub. 16 Oct 2025)

• Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-95012-4 (pub. 17 Oct 2025)

• Pages: xiv + 138; Series ISSN/E-ISSN: 2214-3807 / 2214-3815; DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-95013-1.

Who should read it. Researchers in pragmatics, philosophy of language, semantics, sociolinguistics, and anyone puzzling over how names actually carry meaning in context - from indexical de se uses to institutional naming practices.