"指称的转移"问题最早由埃文斯明确提出,其目的是对克里普克有关指称行为如何发生这一问题的论点进行批判。它曾一度被认为是因果历史命名理论最棘手的难题。尽管迄今克里普克都没有就此诘难做出过系统的正面回应,但他后来关于指示词的说话者指称和语义指称的区分,却可以为指称的转移提供融贯的解释,从而显示该区分的解题功能。
To criticize Kripke's viewpoints on how reference is realized, Evans explicitly referred to reference shift as a counterexample. It was accepted as one of those hard problems for causal-historical theory to answer. Although Kripke only gave a very simple reply in the seperate edition of Naming and Necessity, a coherent account for reference shift can be provided by means of his distinction between speaker's reference and semantic reference.