Editing Definite description (section)

{{Short description|Denoting phrase in the form of "the X"}}
{{no footnotes|date=June 2016}}
In [[formal semantics (natural language)|formal semantics]] and [[philosophy of language]], a '''definite description''' is a [[denotation|denoting]] [[phrase]] in the form of "the X" where X is a noun-phrase or a singular common [[noun]]. The definite description is ''proper'' if X applies to a unique individual or object.  For example: "[[Yuri Gagarin|the first person in space]]" and "[[Bill Clinton|the 42nd President of the United States of America]]" are proper. The definite descriptions "the person in space" and "the Senator from Ohio" are ''improper'' because the noun phrase X applies to more than one thing, and the definite descriptions "the first man on Mars" and "the Senator from Washington D.C." are ''improper'' because X applies to nothing. Improper descriptions raise some difficult questions about the [[law of excluded middle]], [[denotation]], [[Linguistic modality|modality]], and [[mental content]].