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unit 3 and 4 sense and reference

The document discusses the concepts of reference and sense in semantics, highlighting that reference relates language to the world while sense pertains to relationships within language. It explains how expressions can have variable reference and multiple senses, depending on context. Additionally, it covers referring expressions, opaque contexts, and equative sentences, emphasizing the importance of context in determining meaning and reference in language.

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Anum Baloch
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8 views

unit 3 and 4 sense and reference

The document discusses the concepts of reference and sense in semantics, highlighting that reference relates language to the world while sense pertains to relationships within language. It explains how expressions can have variable reference and multiple senses, depending on context. Additionally, it covers referring expressions, opaque contexts, and equative sentences, emphasizing the importance of context in determining meaning and reference in language.

Uploaded by

Anum Baloch
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Unit 3 & 4

Reference and Sense


Module: semantics Instructor: Shazia Akbar Ghilzai
Department of Linguistics
Quaid-e-Azam University
• What is the difference between reference and
sense ???

• Reference deals with the relationships between


language and the world.

• Sense deals with the relationships


inside the language.
• Definition:
• By means of reference, a speaker indicates
which things in the world (including
persons) are being talked about.
• E.g. My son is in the beech tree.

identifies identifies
person thing
• So we have two things:
• 1- the English expression (part of the
language)
• 2- the thing (part of the world).
• Some expressions in a language can have
variable reference, e.g. “your ear”.
• Some expressions, in everyday talk, never
refer to different things, e.g. ‘the moon’.
• Sense:
• Definition: the sense of an expression is its
place in a system of semantic relationships
with other expressions in the language.
• 1- the first of these semantic relationship is
the sameness of meaning in words, phrases
and sentences.
almost
• I nearly fell over.

• Marry took off her jacket.


• Marry took her jacket off.

• In some cases one word can have more


than one sense.
• 1. I have an account at the bank of Scotland.
• 2. We steered the raft to the other bank of the
river.

• Moreover, one sentence can have different


senses.
• E.g. He greeted the girl with a smile.
• 1- Smiling, he greeted the girl.
• 2- He greeted the smiling girl.
• Rule: every expression that has meaning
has sense, but
NOT every expression has reference.

E.g. almost, probable, and ,if. None of these


words refers to a thing in the world.
However, all of them have some sense.
• Just as the same sense can be found in
different languages, different expression in
different dialect of one language can have
the same sense.
• E.g. He wrote the lesson. (perfect
translation=same sense)
• Pavement(BE) = sidewalk (AE).
• Ex. P.33
Unit 4:
Referring expressions
• A referring expression is any expression
used in an utterance to refer to something
or someone, i.e. used with a particular
referent in mind.
• Compare Fred:
• Fred hit me.
• There is no Fred at this address.
The same expression can be a referring
expression or not depending on context.

• 1- indefinite noun phrase:


• Compare a man in (a) and (b),
• a) A man was in here looking for you last night.
• b) The first sign of a monsoon is a cloud in the
horizon no bigger than a man’s hand.
• Which one is a referring expression?
• The linguistic context often gave vital clue
to whether the indefinite noun phrase was
a referring expression or not.
• However, in some cases it does not give a
clear indication as in
• ‘John is looking for a car.’
• This sentence is ambiguous. It depends on
whether the speaker has a particular car in
mind.
• This ambiguity can be resolved by the use of
the word certain immediately following the
indefinite article a, as in:
• John is looking for a certain car.
• 2- definite noun phrase:
• Different noun phrases of various kinds (such
as proper names, personal pronouns and
longer descriptive expressions) can all be
used as referring expressions.
However, they may also be used as NOT
referring expressions.
e.g. ‘it’ in: Every man who owns a donkey
beats it.

* The question whether definite and indefinite


noun phrases are used as referring expressions is
dependent on the context of use.
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.
The complete sentence ‘Dennis thinks that … is a genius’
constitutes an opaque context, because, even in a
conversation about British politics in 1982, the following
two utterances would make different claims:
a. Dennis thinks that the Prime Minister is a genius.
b. Denis thinks that the Leader of the Conservative Party
is a genius.
If, for example, Denis thinks erroneously that the Prime
Minister is not the Leader of the Conservative Party, the a
and b will mean different things.
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.

1. Mrs. Tatcher is the Prime Minister.


2. John is the person in the corner.

3. Ted is an idiot.
4. Cairo is not the largest city in Africa.
* A feature of many equative sentences is
that the order of the two referring
expression can be reversed without loss
of acceptability.

-The largest city in Africa is Cairo.


-Cairo is the largest city in Africa.

* However, the reversal test applied here is


not always perfect.

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