R devel - Sep 2013 - SET_NAMED in getattrib0

Can someone please set me straight on why getattrib0 calls
SET_NAMED on the SEXP it returns?  For example the line :

     SET_NAMED(CAR(s), 2);

appears near the end of getattrib0 here :

https://svn.r-project.org/R/trunk/src/main/attrib.c 
<https://svn.r-project.org/R/trunk/src/main/attrib.c>

getattrib() is just reading the value.  Shouldn't NAMED
be bumped if and when the result of getattrib() is
bound to a symbol at R level?

Thanks,
Matthew



	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]