Where conscious subjectivity is concerned, there is no distinction between the observation and the thing observed.
An utterance can have Intentionality, just as a belief has Intentionality, but whereas the Intentionality of the belief is intrinsic the Intentionality of the utterance is derived.
Berkeley had a liberal element in the student body who tended to be quite active. I think that's in general a feature of intellectually active places.
Our tools are extensions of our purposes, and so we find it natural to make metaphorical attributions of intentionality to them; but I take it no philosophical ice is cut by such examples.
Where questions of style and exposition are concerned I try to follow a simple maxim: if you can't say it clearly you don't understand it yourself.
Whatever is referred to must exist. Let us call this the axiom of existence.