6.2.1 Reference

  Linguistic expressions stand in a relation to the world. One aspect of meaning is reference, the relation by which a word picks out or identifies an entity in the world. London refers to or denotes the capital of Great Britain. The word dog denotes a kind of domestic animal. The referential theory, the simplest theory of meaning, claims that meaning is reference. As described by Kempson (1977: 13), the referential approach makes these generalizations: Proper nouns denote individuals; common nouns denote sets of individuals; verbs denote actions; adjectives denote properties of individuals; adverbs denote properties of actions.

  While these observations are factual, the referential theory fails to account for certain kinds of linguistic expressions which are equally meaningful. First, words like dragon, phoenix, unicorn, and mermaid are meaningful but they identify no entities in the real world. Second, it is not possible to find in the world referent for words like but, and, of, however, the, etc. Third, speakers of English understand the meaning of a round triangle although there is no such graph. These facts show that meaning is not confined to reference. Another problem with the referential theory of meaning is that there is not always a one-to-one correspondence between the linguistic expression and the individual or entity that is identified.

  (9) In 1963, John F. Kennidy was assassinated.
  (10) In 1963, the 35th President of the United States of America was assassinated.

The referent of the noun phrases in the two sentences is the same, but the meanings are hardly the same. Thus, we can see that there is more in meaning than reference.

   
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