In the first example, if the hearer knows what an apple and a table are, and understands the relation expressed by on, and is aware that the is a signal that an individual thing or person is intended, they can build up the meaning of the expression from the words and grammar and use it to identify an intended object (often within sight, or at any rate easily recoverable, but not necessarily).
On the other hand, the speaker may be accurate in calling it vodka, but the hearer may believe wrongly that it is water, and therefore not deliver the plate.
Proper names, on the other hand, generally achieve reference irrespective of the meaning of the words which constitute them (if any are recognizable).
If a local pub is called The Anchor, this is simply a label which functions conversationally with no appeal to the meaning of the words.
English allows such expressions to be ambiguous: compare Manchester United are rich beyond my wildest dreams.
Denotation is the relation existing between a lexical item and a set of potential referents in some world.
Generally speaking, lexical items have denotation, whilst phrases have the job of doing reference in real situations.
[1][2] While NLG is concerned with the conversion of non-linguistic information into natural language, REG focuses only on the creation of referring expressions (noun phrases) that identify specific entities called targets by describing their attributes that are most distinct from those of the distractors.