Donnellan on Attribution and Reference Idiolects Keith Donnellan, a man most well known amongst most philosophers for his work on reference and definite descriptions, illustrates on attribution and referential idiolects. He begins by explaining that there are two uses of definite descriptions, but first we must establish what the use of a definite description is according to Donnellan. A definite description, according to Donnellan, refers to that which a speaker wants to talk about, thus we are left with two different theories for definite descriptions. The first, “if C’ is a denoting phrase [as definite descriptions are by definition], it may happen t