Speaker's Reference, Descriptions and Information Structure Paul Dekker Abstract: The notion of information developed in systems of dynamic semantics is applied in an analysis of the referential interpretation of definite descriptions, and the specific interpretation of indefinite ones. A Russellian treatment of descriptions is upgraded with the dynamic semantic notion of a discourse referent, and this enables a combination of contextually given information with information which is properly semantic. The analysis is sharpened by the addition of a partition of utterances into a ground and a focus part. The two extensions suffice to account for the most important features of situations which involve the referential use of expressions in a both semantically and pragmatically satisfactory way. A by-product is a rudimentary analysis of negative existential statements involving names.