A central dispute in understanding Frege’s philosophy concerns how the sense of a complex expression relates to the senses of its component expressions. According to one reading, the sense of a complex expression is a whole built from the senses of the component expressions. On this interpretation, Frege is an early proponent of structured propositions. A rival reading says that senses compose by functional application: the sense of a complex expression is the value of the function denoted by its functional component for the arguments denoted by its remaining components. I argue that two non-negotiable Fregean theses entail that senses compose by functional application. One thesis is that referents compose by functional application. The other thesis is that an expression in an indirect context refers to its customary sense.

理解弗雷格哲学的中心争议在于，复杂表达的意义如何与其组成表达的意义相关。根据一项读物，复杂表达式的意义是从组件表达式的意义构建的。基于这种解释，弗雷格是结构化命题的早期拥护者。竞争对手的读物说，感觉是由功能应用程序构成的：复杂表达式的意义是由功能组件表示的函数的值，由其剩余组件表示的自变量。我认为，两个不可谈判的弗雷格安论文需要由功能应用程序来构成感官。一个论点是指称对象由功能应用程序组成。另一个论点是，间接上下文中的表达是指其习惯意义。