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Then what about "some cows are lilac" then? Is it possible to state that in red because some lilac fictional cows exist or is it impossible because for that red to be effective there must be real lilac cows somewhere?
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I've never seen a purple cow.
And I never hope to see one.
But I'll tell you any how.
You can't disprove the existence of some undiscovered Cow X.
I really don't think that you can say that something that does not exist "is" something, which is what Renall is saying. Granted, I'm not sure I've completely grasped what it is he's trying to say. It's a "both" thing like the cat in the box is "both alive and dead," which I have troubles with.
To a mind like mine, it makes sense for you to be able to say
The purple dragon does not exist. or even
The purple dragon is not purple. , but it doesn't make sense to be able to say "The purple dragon is purple." because I would say it has to be in a state of being in order for the dragon to perform the verb "is".