MEETING 4

REFERRING EXPRESSION
INTRODUCTION

NUSA
My school MANDIRI

EXPRESSION
Kinds of Referring Expression

• Referring Expression
• Non Referring Exp
• Expression Either referring, non Ref.Exp
•
Markers in Referring Expression
• Markers for referring expressions:
• Definite and indefinite markers
• E.g. he, proper name, a

• However, definite and indefinite expression can also refer to

non referring markers
• E.g. The, proper name, a
Definition

Any expression used in an utterance to refer to

someone or something
Example:
Y : “John hit the cat”.
• In this utterance, the name John refers to someone, while the expression the
cat refers a certain cat. Thus, John and the cat are referring expression
Type of Referring expression

Definiteness Collectiveness
Definite Collective
Indefinite Distributive
Explanation-1
Referring expression can occur in the form of proper
name, noun, or noun phrase.
Definite referring expressions refer to an identifiable
individual or class (The Dalai Lama; The Coldstream
Guards; the student with the highest marks)
Indefinite referring expressions allow opportunity in
identifying the referent (a corrupt Member of Parliament;
a cat with black ears - where a is to be interpreted as 'any'
or 'some actual but unspecified').
Explanation-2

Collective reference is the picking out of the members of a set

as a set,
Distributive reference is the picking out of the members of a
set individually.
Compare the examples;
Manchester United won again today (where the reference of
Manchester United is to members of the team as a unit), with
Manchester United wear red shirts and black shorts (where
the reference of Manchester United is to the team members
as individuals).
The difference may not be marked linguistically, but arrived at
by interpretation in context.
Conclusion

• Referring Expression: any expressions used to refer to somebody or someone

with the particular picture in mind (Heasley, 1983)
• An expression can be a referring expression, non referring expression or
either.
• The markers for the three kinds of referring expression: definite or indefinite
markers