Chapter 7 Referents and referring expressions Reem Nasser

Chapter 7 Referents and referring expressions Reem Nasser Abdelwahed 220131724

Referring expressions: Any expression or a piece of language used in a utterance to refer to something or someone outside the language. Referents: A person or thing to which a linguistic expression or other symbol refers

Example Referring expression: Lions Referent: “physical object”: refers to all those large, strong, flasheating animals

Example: 1 ‘John hit me’ the speaker has a particular person in mind ‘John’ is a referring expression. 2‘There’s no John at this address’ the speaker would not have a particular person in mind ‘john’ is not a referring expression.

So, the relation between expressions of language and things outside it (The world) it called “REFERENCE” * Note, way of referring: way of referring We may have different referring expressions with the same referent but they refer in different way Such as : A canary, the canary, this canary, etc….

Definite reference: It uses to uniquely identify things in the world. There are many types of definite reference: ! 1 proper names (John, marry. . . ) 2 pronouns and determiners(this man, that girl) 3 personal pronouns (he, she. . . ) 4 definite descriptions (the girl, the building

Indefinite reference Use non- uniquely identify things in the world It use the articles in its expression E. g. : A girl…. Some apples…. . Five boys…. . Note, the indefinite reference dependents on the context.

Primary vs. secondary referring expressions : Primary referring expressions Noun phrases, like dog, your friend, flower, that refer directly to their referents Secondary referring expression: It refers indirectly to the referents, and their referents can be only determined from the primary expressions that used in the context

Notes: 1 A referring expression is not a referent. 2 there is no natural connection between referring expression and referent 3 The existence of referring expression doesn’t mean the existence of referent in the world E. g. the skyscrapers of Antarctica

4 two or more referring expressions may refer to the same referent. *John is Mary’s best friend The brother of Robert John Here, two different expressions refer to the same person. *Referring to the same musical tool “fiddle, violin”

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