The document discusses the triangle of reference and the relationship between sense and reference in language. [1] It explains that the triangle of reference describes how words suggest ideas in the mind that relate to real-world objects. [2] It then discusses the difference between sense, which deals with relationships within language, and reference, which deals with relationships between language and the world. [3] It provides examples of how expressions can have variable or constant reference and how the same sense can belong to expressions in different languages.

1. UNIT 3
Part 1
REFERENCE AND SENSE

2. T H E O G D E N -RIC HA RDS T R I A NGLE FO R M E A NING
OR
T H E S E M I OTIC T R I A NG LE
o In linguistics, the triangle of reference is a model for explaining how
words convey meaning.

3.  In layman's terms, the triangle of reference says that a word suggests an idea in
the mind of the hearer. The idea connects to a real-world object.

4. T WO WAYS O F TA L KI NG A B O UT
T H E M E A NI NG O F WO R DS A N D OT H E R E X P RESSI ONS
o Sense → we deal with relationships inside the language
o Reference → we deal with the relationships between
language and the world.

5. 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). Reference
↓ ↓
identifies persons identifies things
• Reference: is the relationship between
parts of a language and things outside the
language (in the world).
Practice
27

6. • Can the same expression be used to refer
to different things?
• The same expression can, in some
cases, be used to refer to different things.
• Thus, many expressions in a language can
have variable reference.
Reference
Practice
28
Your actual left
ear , your
‘Your left mother’s actual
ear’ ear, ……...etc.

7. • Are there expressions in normal everyday
conversation that always refer to the same things?
• E.g.
• E.g.
• There are cases of expressions which in normal
everyday conversation never refer to different
things, i.e. in most everyday situations that one can Reference
envisage, have constant reference.
• However, there is very little constancy of reference
in language. Almost all of the fixing of reference
comes from the context in which expressions are
used.

8. • Can two different expressions have the same
referent?
• E.g.
•
•
•
• The classic example is the Morning Star and the Reference
Evening Star, both of which normally refer to the
planet Venus.

9. The SENSE of an expression is its place in a
system of semantic relationships with other
expressions in the language.
Semantic relationships:
1. sameness of meaning
• We will deal first with the senses of words Sense
in context.
• Can we talk about the sense of longer
expressions (phrases and sentences)?

10. • In some cases, the same word can have
more than one sense. (T/F)
• E.g.
•
•
•
•
•
Practice
30

11. • We use the term ‘word’ in the sense of
‘word form’.
• (convenient to treat anything spelled with
the same sequence of letters and
pronounced with the same sequence of
phonemes as being the same word).
• Some semanticists would regard ‘bank’ as
several different words (different entries in
dictionaries).

12. • Can one sentence have different senses ?

13. The relationship between sense and reference:
1. The referent of an expression is often a thing
or a person in the world. SENSE &
REFERENCE
2. The sense of an expression is not a thing at all;
it is an abstraction that can be entertained in
the mind of a language user.
3. It is difficult to say what sort of entity the
sense of an expression is. It is useful to think
of sense as that part of the meaning of an
expression that is left over when reference is
factored out.
4. It is much easier to say whether or not two
expressions have the same sense.

14. • Every expression that has meaning has sense.
T/F SENSE &
REFERENCE
• Every expression has reference.
T/F Practice
31

15. PART 2

16. Practice
31
SENSE &
• Pomme REFERENCE
• La pomme est l'un des fruits les plus
consommés dans le monde. Produite par le
pommier, elle est comestible et a un goût
sucré ou acidulé selon les variétés.

17. Circularity:
• There is something essentially circular about the
set of definitions in a dictionary & defining the SENSE &
senses of words and other expressions. REFERENCE
• Not a bad thing
Practice
32
• Often unavoidable → (e.g. cases of expressions
that have no referents: and, etc.) there is no way
of indicating the meaning of an expression except
with other words.
Likely probably
In all
potentially
likelihood
possibly

18. • There is something semantically complete about a
proposition, as opposed to the sense of a phrase
or single word.
SENSE &
• One might say, roughly, that a proposition PROPOSITION
corresponds to a complete independent thought.
Practice
32
Grammatically Whole Smaller
complete sentence expression e.g.
a phrase or a
single word
Sense of a
Semantically A proposition phrase or a
complete single word

19. • Can the same sense to belong to expressions in
different languages ??
• I woke up early yesterday. SENSE &
• DIFFERENT
LANGUAGES
• The Pyramid of Khufu is the oldest and largest of
the three pyramids in the Giza. It is the only one
of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World to
remain largely intact.
Practice
• 32
.
• To the extent that perfect translation between
languages is possible (a very debatable
point), essentially the same sense can be said to
belong to expressions in different languages.

20. • The relationship between:
Sense & proposition → direct → similarity
Reference & utterance → not so direct → similarity SENSE &
DIFFERENT
• Both referring and uttering are acts performed by LANGUAGES
particular speakers on particular occasions.
• Most utterances contain, or are accompanied
by, one or more acts of referring.
Practice
• An act of referring is the picking out of a particular 3
referent by a speaker in the course of a particular
utterance.

21. • Although the concept of reference is fundamentally
related to utterances, in that acts of reference
only actually happen in the course of
utterances.
• When talking about reference in connection with
sentences, or parts of sentences, we are
imagining a potential utterance of the sentence or
expression in question.
• In everyday conversation, the words
meaning, means, mean, meant, etc. are
sometimes used to indicate reference and
sometimes to indicate sense. Practice
34

22. REVIEW
PRACTICE
P 30

25.  Semantics: A Cour sebook by JAMES R.
HURFORD, RENDAN HEASLEY, MICHAEL B. SMITH
 What Is the Triangle of Reference?
 Tower of Babel, Semantics Initiative, and Ontology
 Pomme – Wikipédia SOURCES
 -
 Great Pyramid of Giza
