1. Referents and referring expressions Reem Nasser Abdelwahed 220131724
Chapter 7
Referents and referring expressions
Reem Nasser Abdelwahed

2. 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

3. Example Referring expression: Lions Referent: “physical object”:
refers to all those large, strong, flash-eating animals

4. 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.

5. world) it called “REFERENCE”
So, the relation between expressions of language and things outside it (The
world) it called “REFERENCE”
* Note, 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….

6. 1 proper names (John, marry...)
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 that...)

7. 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.

8. 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

9. 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

10. 4 two or more referring expressions may refer to the same referent
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”

11. Thank you