According to the thesis of the primacy of the intentional, the reference of language is to be explicated in terms of the intentionality of thought. The word “Pferd,” for example, refers to horses in so far as it is used to express thoughts that are directed upon horses. But most contemporary philosophers of language, until recently at least, have held that the intentionality of thought is to be explicated in terms of the reference of language. But no such explication is at hand.