ABSTRACT Number and Count Sentences like ‘The number of Martian moons is two’ and ‘Mars has two moons’ give rise to a puzzle. How can they be equivalent if only the truth of Number but not that of Count Sentences requires the existence of numbers? Proponents of Linguistic Deflationism seek to resolve this puzzle by arguing that on their correct linguistic analysis the truth of Number Sentences does not require the existence of numbers. In this paper, I argue that Katharina Felka’s recent attempt to vindicate this strategy by analysing Number Sentences as so-called specificational sentences is philosophically dissatisfying and sketch a promising alternative.

中文翻译：

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如何不分析数字句子

摘要 数和数 像“火星卫星的数量是两个”和“火星有两个卫星”这样的句子引起了一个谜题。如果只有数的真而不是数句的真需要数的存在，它们怎么能等价呢？语言通缩论的支持者试图解决这个难题，他们认为在他们正确的语言分析中，数字句子的真实性不需要数字的存在。在本文中，我认为 Katharina Felka 最近试图通过将数字句子分析为所谓的规范句子来证明这一策略的正确性在哲学上是不令人满意的，并勾勒出一个有希望的替代方案。