REFERRING EXPRESSIONS

elephant
Is it always the case that
every expression has
referent?

NO
.
Only those expressions that
can be categorized as
REFERRING
EXPRESSIONS which have
referents
 A REFERRING EXPRESSION is any
expression used in utterance to refer to
something or someone (or a clearly delimited
collection of things or people), i.e. used with
a particular referent in mind.
 Fred
Fred looked
looked for
for you,
you,
Mr.
Mr. Smith
Smith

The speaker has a particular person in mind

when he says “Fred”. Fred is a referring
expression
 A
A man
man was
was inin here
here looking
looking for
for
you
you last
last night,
night, Mr.
Mr. Smith
Smith

The speaker has a particular person in mind

when he says “a man”. A man in his
utterance is a referring expression
Put
Put aa piece
piece of
of ginger
ginger as
as
big
big as
as aa man’s
man’s finger.
finger.

a man in his utterance is not a

referring expression, because it
doesn’t refer to particular man
and there is no particular
referent in his mind
 II heard
heard you
you want
want Yes, I do. I
to
to marry
marry an
an married an
Indonesian,
Indonesian, John.
John. Indonesian
last month

An Indonesian in Mr. Red’s utterance can be or

cannot be a referring expression or not a, but in
John’s utterance it is a referring expression
 John
John is
is my
my best
best friend
friend
He
He is
is aa very
very polite
polite man
man

Definite noun phrases such as proper names (e.g.

John), personal pronouns (e.g. he, it), and longer
expression (the man who sit in the corner) are most
frequently (BUT NOT ALWAYS) used as referring
expressions.
Definite noun phrases but not referring
expressions
• he in: “If everyone ever marries Nancy, he’s
in for a bad time”
• it in: “Every man who owns a donkey beats
it”
• the person who did this in: “The person who
did this must be a professional”
• Smith’s murderer in: “Smith’s murderer must
be insane”
 A REFERRING EXPRESSION is any
expression used in utterance to refer to
something or someone (or a clearly delimited
collection of things or people), i.e. used with
a particular referent in mind.

The
The linguistic
linguistic context
context
often
often gave
gave aa vital
vital clue
clue as
as
to
to whether
whether the
the indefinite
indefinite
noun
noun phrase
phrase was
was aa
referring
referring expression
expression or or not
not