English Semantics
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MODULE 3
Referring Expressions
Instructor: Lam Hoang Phuc
3.1. Referring expressions
▪ A referring expression is any expression used in an
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.
E.g. The name Fred in an utterance such as ‘Fred hit me’,
where the speaker has a particular person in mind when he
says ‘Fred’, is a referring expression.
3.1. Referring expressions
▪ The same expression can be a referring expression or not
(or, as some would put it, may or may not have a
‘referring interpretation’), depending on the context. This
is true of indefinite noun phrases.
E.g.
A man in ‘A man was in here looking for you last night’ is a
referring expression.
A man in ‘The first sign of the monsoon is a cloud on the
horizon no bigger than a man’s hand’ is not a referring
expression.
3.1. Referring expressions
▪ The linguistic context often gave a vital clue as to whether
the indefinite noun phrase was a referring expression or
not. But it does not always give a clear indication.
E.g. In ‘Nancy married a Norwegian,’ it’s not clear whether a
Norwegian is a referring expression or not; it depends on
whether the speaker has in mind a particular person whom
Nancy wants to marry.
▪ The ambiguity could be resolved by the use of the word
certain immediately following the indefinite article.
E.g. ‘Nancy wants to marry a certain Norwegian.’
3.1. Referring expressions
▪ Definite noun phrases most frequently are used as
referring expressions. But, even with definite noun
phrases, there are examples in which they are not (or not
clearly) referring expressions.
E.g. He in ‘If anyone ever marries Nancy, he’s in for a bad
time’ (meaning that whoever marries Nancy is in for a bad
time) is not a referring expression.
The question of whether a noun phrase is used as a
referring expression is very much dependent on the context
and circumstances of use.
3.2. Opaque context
▪ This is normally the case that utterances which differ only
in that they use different expressions referring to the
same thing (or person) will have the same meaning. But
there is a class of exceptions, called opaque contexts.
▪ An opaque context is a part of a sentence which could be
made into a complete sentence by the addition of a
referring expression, but where the addition of different
referring expressions, even though they refer to the same
thing or person, in a given situation, will yield sentences
with different meanings when uttered in a given situation.
3.2. Opaque context
▪ E.g.
Consider the following two utterances:
- ‘Dick believes that John killed Smith’
- ‘Dick believes that the person in the corner killed Smith’
Assume that Dick does not know that John is the person in
the corner; it is possible that one of these two utterances is
true and the other false.
▪ Dick believes that ... killed Smith is an opaque context.
3.3. Equative sentence
▪ An equative sentence is one which is used to assert the
identity of the referents of two referring expressions, i.e.
to assert that two referring expressions have the same
referent.
E.g. Tony Blair is the Prime Minister is an equative sentence.
▪ A feature of many equative sentences is that the order of
the two referring expressions can be reversed without
loss of acceptability.
E.g.
- The largest city in Africa is Cairo
- Cairo is the largest city in Africa
3.3. Equative sentence
▪ The ‘reversal test’ applied here is not a perfect diagnostic
for equative sentences, however. In What I need is a pint
of Guinness, a pint of Guinness is not a referring
expression, because a user of this sentence would not
have any particular pint of Guinness in mind, but the
sentence is nevertheless reversible.
▪ On the other hand, the sentence That is the man who
kidnapped my boss definitely is equative, but it is not
reversible.
REFERENCES
Hurford, J. R., Heasley, B. & Smith, M. B. (2007).
Semantics: A course book. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.