Incomplete Definite Descriptions, Demonstrative Completion and Redundancy

Abstract : “Incomplete” definite descriptions (i.e. descriptions that violate the uniqueness constraint) have been offered various accounts in semantics. Among them, the so-called ellipsis account, which analyzes “the F” as elliptical for “the F which is that F”. I begin by arguing that the objections raised against this account have not been conclusive, and go on to supply a new argument against it, which consists in showing such demonstrative completions to be semantically redundant.