This document discusses key concepts in semantics including referring expressions, predicates, and arguments. It defines referring expressions as any expression that refers to something or someone. Predicates are words or phrases that can function as the main verb of a sentence, such as "hungry" or "asleep". Arguments are the individual entities that fill roles in predicates, expressed through referring expressions. Several examples are provided to illustrate these concepts. Practices questions with answers are included to help distinguish referring expressions, predicates, and arguments in example sentences. Contexts that can affect meaning like opaque contexts and equative sentences are also examined.

1. Referring Expression, Predicate,
& Argument
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2. Point to discuss
• Referring Expression
• Predicate Predicator
• Argument

3. Referring Expression
• Is any expression used in an utterance to refer
to something of someone (or a clearly
delimited collection of things or people) used
with particular referent in mind (Hurford,
2007, p.37)
• Example: Fred
• Fred hit me (referring expression)
• There’s no Fred at this address (no referring
expression)

4. Practices
1. My table
2. A unicorn
3. No love
4. Travel
5. Or
6. Mary
Answers: 1 (yes) 2 (yes) 3
(no) 4 (no) 5 (no) 6 (yes)
1. His father married a
dancer
2. John wants to marry a
dancer
3. I am looking for a
pencil
These examples (2) & (3) are
ambiguous. It can be resolved
by the use of the word
‘certain’. Certain Dancer or
Certain Pencil.

5. Opaque Context
• 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. (Heasley, 2007, p: 40)

6. Practices
1. John is standing alone in the corner. Do ‘John’ and ‘the
person in the corner’ have the same referent?
2. Dick believes that John killed Smith
Dick believes that the person in the corner killed Smith.
Could one of these utterances be true and false?
3. Laura Bush thinks that the President is a genius
Laura Bush thinks Leader of Republican Party is a genius
do these two sentences mean different things?
Answers: 1 (Yes) 2 (Yes) 3 (Yes). These are kind of “opaque
context” with the contexts which seem to block our view. It’s
typically involve a certain kind verb, such as want, believe, think.

7. Equative Sentence
• 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. (Smith, 2007, p: 42)
• Example:
Tony Blair is the Prime Minister (Yes)
The Prime Minister is Tony Blair (No)

8. Practice
1. Fred is the man with the gun
2. William the Conquer is the current King of England
3. Destroit is a nearby city
4. Mary is a genius
5. Dr Jekyll is Mr Hyde
6. Ted is an idiot
Answers: 1 (Yes) 2 (Yes) 3 (No) 4 (No) 5 (Yes) 6 (No)

9. Predicator
The predicator of a simple declarative sentence is the
word (sometimes a group of words) which does not
belong to any of the referring expressions and which, of
the remainder, makes the most specific contribution to
the meaning of sentence. (Hurford, 2007, p: 47)
1. Mummy is asleep
2. The white man loved the Indian maiden
3. Jimmy was waiting for the downtown bus
Predicator is asleep, love, wait for.

10. Practice
1. I am hungry
2. John loves Mary
3. Ed is a fool
4. The man who lives at number 10 Lee Crescent is
whimsical
Answers: 1 (hungry) 2 (in) 3 (a fool) 4 (whimsical)
The predicators can be verb, adjective, noun,
preposition.

11. Predicate
• Is any word (or sequence of words) which (in a
given single sense) can function as the
predicator of a sentence . (Heasly, 2007, p:48)
• Example:
hungry, in, crook, asleep, hit, show, bottle are
predicate
and, or, but, you, Fred are not predicate

12. Predicate
There is also Degree of predicate. It is a number
indicating the number of arguments and is
normally understood to have in simple
sentences. (Smith, 2007, p: 50)
Example
‘Asleep’ in a sentence ‘the baby is asleep’
‘Hit’ in a sentence ‘Martha hit the parrot’

13. Argument
• It is an individual independent entity, the role is
played by the referring expression. (Hurford, 2007,
p:48)
1. Juan is Indonesian
Predicator: Indonesian
Argument: Juan
2. Donald is proud of his family
Predicator: proud
Argument: Donald, his family

14. Practice
1. Tom punched Bob
2. John gave Mary a ring
3. Jane is Mary’s Mother
4. Jones is the dean of
the college
5. Mary loves John
6. John stood near the
bank
• The answers
1. Pred: punched, Arg: Tom,
Bob
2. Pred: gave, Arg: John,
Mary, a ring
3. Pred: is, Arg: Jane, Mary’s
Mother
4. Pred: is, Arg: Jones, the
dean, the college
5. Pred: love, Arg: Mary, John
6. Pred: stood, near, Arg:
John, the bank

15. Reference
Hurford, James. R., Heasley,
Brendan., Smith Michael. B. (2007).
Semantic A Course Book, Cambridge
University Press.

16. THANK YOU
For Your Attention