REFERRING EXPRESSIONS

elephant Is it always the case that

every expression has referent?

NO.

Only those expressions that can be categorized as

REFERRING EXPRESSIONS which have

referents

A REFERRING EXPRESSION is any expression used in utterance to refer to

something or someone (or a clearly delimited collection of things or people), i.e. used with

a particular referent in mind.

Fred looked for you, Mr. Smith

The speaker has a particular person in mind when he says “Fred”. Fred is a referring expression

A man was in here looking for you last night, Mr. Smith

The speaker has a particular person in mind when he says “a man”. A man in his utterance is a referring expression

Put a piece of ginger as big as a man’s finger.

a man in his utterance is not a referring expression, because it doesn’t refer to particular man and there is no particular referent in his mind

I heard you want to marry an Indonesian, John.

Yes, I do. I married an Indonesian last month

An Indonesian in Mr. Red’s utterance can be or cannot be a referring expression or not a, but in John’s utterance it is a referring expression

John is my best friend

He is a very polite man

Definite noun phrases such as proper names (e.g. John), personal pronouns (e.g. he, it), and longer expression (the man who sit in the corner) are most frequently (BUT NOT ALWAYS) used as referring expressions.

Definite noun phrases but not referring expressions

• he in: “If everyone ever marries Nancy, he’s in for a bad time”

• it in: “Every man who owns a donkey beats it”

• the person who did this in: “The person who did this must be a professional”

• Smith’s murderer in: “Smith’s murderer must be insane”

A REFERRING EXPRESSION is any expression used in utterance to refer to

something or someone (or a clearly delimited collection of things or people), i.e. used with

a particular referent in mind.

The linguistic context often gave a vital clue as to whether the indefinite noun phrase was a referring expression or not