Chinese Names Under Millikan’s Lens

In this paper I will try to use Ruth Millikan’s theory of language to give a novel interpretation of Chinese names, which captures the true nature of semantics, ontology, and Chinese mind. Contrary to Chad Hansen’s popular mass noun hypothesis that endorses an implausible mereological ontology, I argue that Chinese names are primarily used as generics, and they refer to a special kind of ontological category that I call Millikan substances. It turns out that there are no significant differences between Chinese language and western languages regarding their uses and functions, though the western philosophical tradition has generated a distorted picture of language with its misleading theories of ontology, mind, and semantics.