Referents and referring

expressions
: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, flash-eating
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: 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

proper names (John, marry...) 1
pronouns and determiners(this man, that girl) 2
personal pronouns (he, she...) 3
definite descriptions (the girl, the building 4
that...)
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”
Thank you