Referents in Semantics

 

Referent

Definition: 

A referent is the concrete object or concept that is designated by a word or expression. A referent is an object, action, state, relationship, or attribute in the referential realm

Words are used to represent things and experiences in the real or imagined world. Different words can be used to describe the same thing or experience.

A referring expression is a piece of language, a noun phrase that is used in an utterance and is linked outside language, some living or dead or imaginary entity or concept. A referring expression is generally used to identify a particular person or thing ( noun, noun phrase or pronoun). Mr. Smith, the headmaster, is very diligent. He loves to perform his duties well. In the above examples, Mr Smith, the headmaster , he and his are referents.   Reference is often contrasted with 'sense'—semantic relations between words (e.g., antonymy, synonymy) which are internal to language "In [the transitive verb pattern] (My roommate and I became good friends), the two noun phrases have the same referent:  My roommate and I and good friends refer to the same people. We could, in fact, say My roommate and I are good friends, using the linking be."   Determiners Determiners such as articles the and a come into play with determining what's being referred to, as well as pronouns such as this and those. "The definite article the indicates that the referent (i.e., whatever is referred to) is assumed to be known by the speaker and the person being spoken to (or addressee). "The indefinite article a or an makes it clear that the referent is one member of a class (a book). "Demonstrative determiners indicate that the referents are 'near to' or 'away from' the speaker's immediate context (this book, that book, etc.)." Extension and Intension in Reference The Extension of a lexeme is the set of entities which it denotes. BIRD; sparrow, dove, bluebird, hawk and eagle. Intension of any lexeme is the set of properties shared by all members of the extension. For example all birds have wings, feathers, two legs and beak.   UNIQUE AND NON UNIQUE REFERENTS 1.     We swam across the Saif ul Malook lake. (unique referent) 2.     We swam across a lake. ( Non unique referent). When a referent refers to a particular object, concept or idea, it is a unique referent whereas when a referent refers to a general object, idea or concept, it is a Non unique referent. CONCRETE AND ABSTRACT REFERENT Lexeme such as dog, door, leaf stone denote concrete referents which can be seen or touched. Example: The key to the front door. A big lion. A bright light. The lexemes which denote an idea, problem, reason, knowledge etc and abstract referents. Example:  Hard work is a key to success. A hungry lion. COUNTABLE AND UNCOUNTABLE REFERENTS A countable referent is a word or phrase which can ordinarily be counted one by one such as pencil, orange, mango etc They eat two apples. Non Countable Referent is a word or phrase which cannot be ordinarily counted one by one such as salt, sugar, sand, sauce etc. REFERRING EXPRESSIONS There are three kinds of referring expressions: PROPER NAMES: they have a unique reference such as Lahore, the Quaid Tomb, Qutab Minaar. PRONOUNS: such as she, he, it, they, you, I, we etc Noun Phrases: they have nouns with variable reference as the head preceded by a determiner and possibly followed by one or more complements. Example: The taxi A taxi This taxi GENERIC AND NON GENERIC REFERENCE Generic reference is referring to a noun in a general way: Dogs that bark at night are annoying. Dog that barks at night is annoying. In these examples, the change from singular to plural or vice versa doesn’t make a difference. Non Generic is a sentence which can be expressed by specifying the objects or situation. Example: A dog that barks at night is annoying. SPECIFIC AND NON SPECIFIC REFERENCE Specific reference refers to a particular item or previously mention noun. Most students use the computers in the library. Non Specific refers to any one  of many possible items. These are computers in the library.   Anaphoric reference An anaphoric reference happens when a word or phrase references something mentioned earlier in the text. This could be a thing/idea mentioned in a previous sentence, or something mentioned a while ago. Here is an example of an anaphoric reference: Andy wrote the letter. Later that day, he posted it. In this example, the word 'he' is referring back to 'Andy' who is mentioned in the first sentence. By using the pronoun we avoid repetition, this is a good use of anaphoric reference. The word 'it' has also been used to replace the word 'letter'. Anaphora occurs when the use of an expression relies on another antecedent (previous) expression. It is an expression that can only be contextually understood by another expression in the text that happened before. An 'anaphor' is typically used deictically; This means that it is specifying something (often something spatial, an identity, or temporal location) from the writer's or speaker's perspective. It is often used to avoid repetition whenever it is clear from the context of the text who or what is being referred to. Different Types of Anaphora Antecedent Anaphora This is the more commonly used anaphora, especially when thinking about anaphoric references. We have already explored how it is used, i.e. it uses an antecedent expression in the first part of the text, and then an anaphor in the anaphoric expression that links back to the first part. Complement Anaphora Sometimes, anaphoric references are used to refer to something that isn't actually mentioned in the text but can still be understood from the context. Take a look at the example below: Beth got the promotion at work. He wasn't good enough. Here, the anaphor 'he' is used to refer to someone that isn't mentioned in the sentence before. It is not referring to 'Beth' (who is the subject of the first sentence) but to someone else instead. However, we can understand from the context of the first sentence that 'he' is referring to a man who hasn't received a promotion. Cataphoric references  Cataphoric references are the opposite of anaphoric references. Cataphoric references happen when a word or phrase makes a reference to a thing or idea mentioned later in the text. For example: Even though I see him every day, I always forget to invite Sam over for a meal. Whereas anaphoric references use antecedents (a word or phrase that is represented by another word, such as a pronoun), cataphoric references use postcedents. Cataphora occurs when an expression relies on a later expression in order for the initial statement to make sense. Cataphora is used to make cataphoric references. These references can be used to: Avoid repetition. Create a sense of mystery. Build anticipation for the information that is going to be revealed (if the cataphor and postcedent expression are further apart). In texts, cataphoric references can be foreboding of future revelations. Deixis A deictic expression or deixis is a word or phrase (such as this, that, these, those, now, then, here) that points to the time, place, or situation in which a speaker is speaking. Deixis is expressed in English by way of personal pronouns, demonstratives, adverbs, and tense. The term's etymology comes from the Greek, meaning "pointing" or "show," and it's pronounced "DIKE-tik."  It sounds more complicated than it really is, for sure. For example, if you would ask a visiting exchange student, "Have you been in this country long?"  the words this country and you are the deictic expressions, as they refer to the country where the conversation happens and the person being addressed in the conversation, respectively. Examples: I wish you'd been here yesterday. Last week I flew over there for a quick visit. Types of Deixis Now that we have an idea of how deixis works, let's look deeper into the various types of deixis. There are three traditional types of deixis: Personal - relating to the speaker, or the person spoken to: the 'who'. Temporal - relating to time: the 'when'. Spatial, or Local - relating to place: the 'where'. NOTE: the 1st and 2nd person pronouns (I, you, we) are typically active participants (in that they speak and hear speech); the third person pronouns (she, he, they) refer to inactive, ie non-speech or narrated participants. Personal deixis, temporal deixis, and spatial deixis Looking at our earlier deictic examples again, we can now identify temporal deixis, spatial deixis and personal deixis: I wish you'd been here yesterday. 'I' and 'you' are examples of personal deixis, (people) 'Here' is an example of spatial deixis, (place) And 'yesterday' is temporal deixis. (time) Last week I flew over there for a quick visit. 'Last week', which relates to when, is the temporal deixis, 'I' refers to a person, and becomes the personal deixis, 'There' refers to location, and is the spatial deixis. See if you can identify the temporal deixis, spatial deixis, and personal deixis in the following: 1. When he got there, he went straight to her. 2. We booked into this hotel last night; I think he's arriving tomorrow. In the first deictic example, the speaker is referring to third-party inactive participants: 'he' and 'her'. 'There' refers to location, so it becomes location-specific, and therefore it is an example of 'spatial deixis'. In the second deictic example, 'this' becomes the 'spatial deixis', while 'last night' and 'tomorrow' refer to time, which is 'temporal deixis'. The second sentence is an example of both spatial deixis and temporal deixis. Proximal deixis If you think of proximity, i.e closeness, it should become clear that proximal deixis refers to what is close to the speaker - think of 'this', 'here', 'now'. Distal deixis Distal deixis instead refers to what is distant, or away, from the speaker; usually, these would be: 'that', 'there', and 'then'. A good deictic example would be 'that one over there!' Discourse deixis Discourse Deixis, or Text Deixis, happens when we use deictic expressions to refer to something we are talking about in the same utterance. Imagine you have just finished reading a great story. You might show it to your friend and say: ‘This is an amazing book’. ‘This’ refers to the book which you are going to tell your friend about. Social deixis Social deixis is when we use a term of address to indicate social or professional status. In many languages there is a distinct change of form for second-person pronouns, to indicate familiarity or politeness. Tum and aap of urdu and hindi Deictic centre Deictic centre indicates where the speaker is at the time of speaking. When someone says ‘I am standing here’ they are using a deictic centre to indicate their current location, from this utterance alone we cannot know where ‘here’ is, only the speaker and the person addressed will realize this from context. This location could change ten or more times in the next hour or so, but the speaker can still, at any point during that hour, indicate his location in the same way: ‘I am here’.