Presentation on: Referents and referring expressions

Referents: A referent can be just about anything, from concrete objects to abstractions, as the concept is not dependent on what in the text the referent turns out to be. A referent is solely something that's referred to.

A referent is a person, entity, place, concept, experience and so on in the real (or an imagined) world which is designated by a word or phrase. For example, the word cat 'refers to' a feline domestic animal, while hobbit refers to a small human-like creature with hairy feet and pointed ears (in the fictional universe of J.R.R. Tolkien). Reference is often contrasted with 'sense'— semantic relations between words (e.g., antonym, synonymy) which are internal to language.

Referring Expression: A referring expression is any expression used in an utterance to refer to something or some one. The same expression can be a referring expression or not depending on the context. The condition which makes an expression can be mentioned as a referring expression when the speaker and the hearer have the same perception of what is being talked about.

Types of Referring Expression - Indefinite Noun Phrase uses articles in its expression. e.g. -A girl who wore a black sweater is friendly. -Some apples are bought by my grandmother. -Five boys are playing guitar. - Definite Noun Phrase uses proper name, personal pronoun and longer descriptive expression. e.g. -Rania is friendly. -She is studying Semantics. -The person who stole my bag is my friend.

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

Referents & Referring expressions Examples: Referent: boy It refers to any young male person (general) Referring expression: Ali It refers to a specific boy named Ali (specific)

Its important to mention that (Ali) can be a referent or a referring expression according to the context: 1. Ali is my best friend. Ali in this sentence is a referring expression. There is a specific Ali in my mind. 2. There is no Ali in this class. But Ali here is not a referring expression. The speaker has no particular person in his mind.

Way of referring: We may have different referring expressions with the same referent. But they refer in different way. Such as: A dog, the dog, this dog …

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 4. Two or more referring expressions may refer to the same referent. * Hassan is Mary’s best friend. * The brother of Robert Hassan. Here, two different expressions refer to the same person.

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