The document discusses reference and meaning in language. It defines reference as the relationship between linguistic expressions and real world entities. Reference can be referring, where expressions pick out entities, or non-referring. Referring expressions include nouns and names, while non-referring includes words like "very" and "maybe". Reference can also be constant, where an expression always refers to the same entity, or variable, where context determines the referent. Meaning in language can be viewed through either a referential approach, where meaning comes from relating expressions to reality, or a representational approach, where meaning comes from reflecting conceptual structures.

1. Meaning, Thought andMeaning, Thought and
RealityReality
Lecture 2

2. IntroductionIntroduction
• NAMING
• Words are “names” or “labels” for things… The child
learns many of his words by a process of naming.
• All languages have words or expression like John Smith,
Paris, Wednesday, the so-called proper nouns, whose
function is precisely that of naming or labeling.
• The dictionary definition of a word is its DENOTATION.
The denotation is used to indicate the class of persons,
things, etc., generally represented by the expression.
(The personal or emotional meaning that a word may
carry is its CONNOTATION.)

3. • The term REFERENCE has already been used to
contrast with denotation. Reference is referred to by it in
a particular context. (Thus, cow will denote the class of
all cows, but that cow will refer to a particular cow.)
• Reference deals with the relationship between the
linguistic elements, words, sentences, etc., and the non-
linguistic world of experience. SENSE relates to the
complex system of relationships that hold between the
linguistic elements themselves (mostly the words).

4. • The words that are linked with objects in the world
around us, they often seem to denote a whole set of
rather different objects.
• The classification of objects in terms of the words used
to denote them differs from language to language. (ex:
the color systems of language)
• The words of a language often reflect not so much the
reality of the world, but the interests of the people who
speak it.
• These scenic classifications of words are not typical of
everyday experience.

5. • The words that are linked with objects in the world
around us, they often seem to denote a whole set of
rather different objects.
• The classification of objects in terms of the words used
to denote them differs from language to language. (ex:
the color systems of language)
• The words of a language often reflect not so much the
reality of the world, but the interests of the people who
speak it.
• These scenic classifications of words are not typical of
everyday experience.

6. • The basic question – how is it that we can use
language to describe the world.
• In semantics, the action of picking out or
identifying with words is often called
referringreferring or denotingdenoting
• For example, Kuala Lumpur refers to or
denotes the city, Ali refers to the person who
is named Ali. The entity referred to is usually
called the referent.referent.

7. Reference
• The action of picking out or identifying with words is often called
referring or denoting, for examples, Paris refers to or denotes the
city, John refers to the person who is named John. The entity
referred to is usually called the referent.
• John Lyons separate the terms refer from denote. Denote is used
for the relationship between a linguistic expression and the world,
while refer is used for the action of a speaker in picking out the
entities in the world. Referring is what the speakers do, but
denoting is a property of words. Only some of the noun phrases
can have referents, but all the non-functional words and phrases
have denotations.
• Noun phrases have the following subtypes: definite noun phrase
(also called definite description), indefinite noun phrase, bare noun
phrases, names, and pronouns (including demonstratives)

8. • Types of reference:
• --- referring/non-referring expressions: nominals (noun phrases
and names) are usually referring expressions, but words like very,
so, bad, are not referring expressions. An indefinite noun phrase
has a referring and a non-referring use.
• --- constant/variable reference: Usually pronouns have variable
reference, but definite NPs can also have variable reference, for
example, the President of the US. Variable reference depends on
context, and pronouns with contextual dependency are called
deixis.
• The term extension of an expression is the set of which could
possibly be the referent of that expression. This is the same as the
denotation of an expression mentioned earlier.

9. • Some writers separate the terms refer and
denote. For them, denote is used for the
relationship between a linguistic expression
and the world, while refer is used for the
action of a speaker in picking out entities in
the world.
• Referring is what the speakers do, but
denoting is a property of words.
• Only some of the noun phrases can have
referents, but all the non-functional words
and phrases have denotations.

10. Two main approaches to the ability to talk aboutTwo main approaches to the ability to talk about
the world:the world:
1.1. Referential (denotational) approach
• This action of putting words into relationship with
the world is meaning, so that to provide a semantic
description for a language we need to show how the
expressions of the language can ‘hook onto’ the
world.
• Thus theories of meaning can be called referential
(denotational) when their basic premise is that we
can give the meaning of words and sentences by
showing how they relate to situation.
• Ex. Nouns are meaningful because they denote
entities in the world and sentences because they
denote situations and events.

11. • What is the difference between the
meanings of:
a. There is a restaurant in Gasing Street.
b. There isn’t a restaurant in Gasing Street.

12. Representational approach
• This approach says that our ability to talk
about the world depends on our mental
models of it.
• In this view a language represents a theory
about reality: about the types of things and
situations in the world.
• Thus a speaker can choose to view the same
situation in different ways.

13. • Ex.
a. Joan is sleeping.
b. Joan is asleep.
c. You have a cold. (English); A cold has you
(Somali); A cold is on you (Irish)
• Theories of meaning can be called
representational when their emphasis is on the
way that our reports about reality are influenced
by the conceptual structures conventionalised in
our language.

14. • These two approaches focus on different
aspects of the same process: talking about
the world.
• In referential theories, meaning derives from
language being attached to, or grounded in,
reality.
• In representational approach meaning
derives from language being a reflection of
our conceptual structures.

15. ReferenceReference
• Types of reference: we for the most part confine our
discussion to the referential possibilities of names
and NPs, which together we can call nominals, since
the nominal is the linguistic unit which most clearly
reveals this function of language.
• 1. referring and non-referring expressions
• There linguistic expressions which can never be used
to refer, e.g. the words so, very, maybe, if, not, all.
These are intrinsically non-referring items.

16. • When someone says the noun cat in a sentence like The cat
looks vicious, the noun is referring expression since it is being
used to identify an entity. So nouns are potentially referring
expressions.
2. Constant vs variable reference
- Some expressions will have the same referent across a range
of utterances, e.g. the Eiffel Tower or the Pacific Ocean.
- Others have their reference totally independent on context,
for ex. pronouns, anaphors (variable reference)
a. I wrote you.
b. She put it in my office.

17. • 3. Referents and extensions
• We use the term referentreferent of an expression for the
thing picked out by uttering the expression in a
particular context.
• The term extensionextension of an expression is the set of
things which could possibly be the referent of that
expression. In the terminology of Lyons (1977) the
relationship between an expression and its
extension is called denotation.
• Ex. The capital of Nigeria would be the city of Abuja