Direct reference theory shows proper names function indexically, relying on initial baptism and continuous causal transmission rather than accumulated spatial-temporal descriptions.

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Continuous causal transmission(philosophy of language): When a name gets passed along from person to person through a connected chain of communication, where each person learned the name from someone else who had learned it before them.
Function indexically(philosophy of language): Work like words whose meaning depends on who's saying them and when—similar to how 'I' means different people depending on who's speaking, or 'today' changes meaning depending on the current date.
Spatial-temporal descriptions(philosophy of language): Detailed information about where something is located and when it existed or happened—basically, facts about an object's location in space and time.
direct reference theory(Used to characterize one reading of Husserl's theory of reference): A theory of reference characterized by singularity — the idea that certain expressions refer directly to objects without mediation by descriptive content

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