"Bach's account of reference is systematic and detailed....Although in no way trivial or superficial, Thought and Reference looks like a healthy resurgence of common sense. Such a model of clarity should at least provide refreshing stimuli for those wallowing in the deepening mire of recent technicalities."--David Freeman, Oxford University

"A powerful and persuasive defence of a particular point of view of the relations between semantics and pragmatics, and an important contribution to the field."--Times Higher Education Supplement

"Bach provides an interesting, and sometimes entertaining, survey of the various 'referential intentions' that might determine reference....Bach is largely successful in arguing in detail that a number of debates concerning the senses of referring expressions, or of sentences that contain them, turn on a neglect of the distinction between questions concerning the meaning or reference of linguistic entities and questions concerning what linguistic entities are (even standardly) used for."--Inquiry

"An ambitious book....Will be of interest to philosophers of language and linguists studying semantics and pragmatics....It is also important because it represents a flow of ideas and distinctions from linguistics towards philosophy, when the traditional flow has been in the other direction."--Language

"A subtle and convincing analysis...especially interesting are his critiques of the positions of Strawson, Evans, Searle, Donnellan, Kripke and Burge."--Dialectica "Stimulates and illuminates."--Times Literary Supplement