This document discusses referring expressions and definiteness in linguistics. It defines referring expressions as language used to refer to something specific, while definiteness refers to whether an expression is used referentially depending on context. Key points include: - Referring expressions can be single words or phrases and depend on the speaker having a specific referent in mind. - Whether an expression is referring depends on linguistic and utterance context. - Definite noun phrases like names or pronouns are usually referring but can be non-referring in some contexts. - Opacity and equative sentences involve substitution of referring expressions and identity of referents.

1. Department of English Language and Literature
Major: English Language and Literature
Semantics Session 5 Referring expressions
Dr. Badriya Al Mamari
Academic year 2021/2022

2. 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.

3. Example:
‘Fareed hit me’ (the speaker has a particular person in
mind).
-‘Fareed’ is a referring expression.
‘There’s no Fareed at this address’ (the speaker would not
have a particular person in mind)
-‘Fareed’ is not a referring expression

4. The same expression can be:
- a referring expression or not = may or may not have a
‘referring interpretation, depending on the context.
- This is true of indefinite noun phrases
EX.
- The dog chased a cat. A big, fat black cat.

5. Definite’ and ’indefinite
‘Definite’ and ’indefinite’ are grammatical terms not directly
parallel to the semantic terms ‘referring expression and ‘non-
referring expression.
Definite & indefinite noun phrases can be used as referring
expressions depending on the context and circumstances of use.
The linguistic context often gives a vital clue as to whether the
indefinite noun phrase was a referring expression or not.
The linguistic context does not always give a clear indication.

6. A referring expression can be one word or more.
1.‘Paris’
2.‘The boy under the tree’

7. Indefinite noun phrases:
How can one resolve the ambiguities in expressions??
1.by the use of the word certain immediately following the indefinite
article (a).
2.Indefinite noun phrases can be referring expressions.
3.Whether an expression is a referring expression is heavily dependent
on linguistic context and on circumstances of utterance.

8. The notion “referring expression” is not always easy to apply.
Part of the difficulty encountered stems from the fact that it is
not clear what we mean when we say that a speaker must
have a particular individual in mind in order to refer.
But note that in the case of definite noun phrases also, the
question of whether they are used as referring expressions is very
much dependent on the context and circumstances of use.

9. Definite noun phrases:
Definite noun phrase come in various kinds:
*proper names (e.g. John)
*personal pronouns (e.g. he, it)
*Longer descriptive expressions (e.g. The man who drives the bus)
can all be used as referring expressions
most frequently are used as referring expressions.
But there are examples in which they are not (or not clearly)
referring expressions.

10. Reference and Definiteness
Definiteness is a condition of the referring expression.
Indefiniteness indicates that a language expression is not a
referring expression.
 ‘The boy is honest’
 ‘The boy may get sick as the girl’
 ‘Look there! I see a boy climbing the tree’
 ‘A boy must have broken the window’

11. Activity:
1.Not all language expressions are referring expressions. T/F
2.Every referring expression is a language expression. T / F
3.The cat in ‘The cat looks like the tiger’ is a referring expression. T /
F
4.The cat in ‘Have you seen the cat?’ is a referring expression. T / F
5.The tree in ‘The tree may be evergreen or not’ is a referring
expression. T /F
6.The referring expression has one word only. T / F

12. (Opaque context) & (equative sentence)
starting with consideration of definite noun phrases &
eventually indefinite noun phrases, the notions (opaque
context) & (equative sentence) are closely bound up with the
idea of referring expressions.

13. Opaque context:
Normally, one expects that utterances which differ only in that
they use different expressions referring to the same thing (or
person) will have the same meaning.
‘John looks as if he’s about to faint’
‘The person in the corner looks as if he’s about to faint’
But there is a class of exceptions to this generalization. This is
the class of examples involving opaque contexts.

14. 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.
Opaque Context is a linguistic context in which it is not always
possible to substitute "co referential" expressions (expressions
referring to the same object) without altering the truth of sentences.
So, substitution of co- referential expressions into an opaque
context does not always preserve truth.

18. Opaque’ is especially appropriate because these contexts seem to
‘block our view’ through them to the referential interpretations
(referents) of referring expressions.
Opaque contexts typically involve a certain kind of verb, like
want, believe, think, and wonder about.
It is often in the context of such opacity-creating verbs that
indefinite noun phrases could be ambiguous between a referring
and a non-referring interpretation.

19. 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.
Haitham Bin Tariq is the Sultan Of Oman. HT= Sultan
That woman over there is my daughter’s teacher. Woman=Sara

20. Equative sentence:
A feature of many equative sentences is that the order of the two referring
expressions can be reversed without loss of acceptability.
Ex.1 The Sultan of Oman is Haitham Bin Tariq. >>>>>>>>>>(equative)
reversible + acceptable
However, the ‘reversal test’/ ‘inversion test’ is not a perfect diagnostic for
equative sentences.
What I need is a pint of Guinness (reversible) + not a referring expression
(which has no particular referent in mind) (not equative)
Ex2. That is the man who kidnapped my boss.
equative + not reversible >>>>>>>>>>>unacceptable.

21. Reference:
Hurford, J. R., Heasley, B., & Smith, M. B. (2007). Semantics: a
coursebook. Cambridge university press.