Searle [14] has a r g , e d forcefully that referring is a speech act; that people refer, uot just expressions. This paper considers what kind of speech act referring might be. I propose a generalization of Searle's "propositional" act of referring that treats it as an illocutionary act, a request, and argue that the propositional act of referring is unnecessary. The essence of the argument is as follows: First, I consider Searle's definition of the propositional act of referring {which I term the PAA, for Propositional Act Account). .
