What is meant by a referring expression?

What is meant by a referring expression?

In linguistics, a referring expression (RE) is any noun phrase, or surrogate for a noun phrase, whose function in discourse is to identify some individual object. The technical terminology for identify differs a great deal from one school of linguistics to another.

Is I a referring expression?

For most other referring expressions, reference does depend on the context of use. Deictic elements (sometimes called indexicals) are words which refer to something in the speech situation itself. For example, the pronoun I refers to the current speaker, while you refers to the current addressee.

What is the universe of discourse in relation to referring expression?

The Universe of Discourse It is any UTTERANCE as the particular world, REAL or IMAGINARY (or part real, part imaginary) that the speaker assumes he is talking about AT THE TIME.

What is expression in semantics?

– SEMANTICS is the study of the meanings of linguistic expressions, either. simple or complex, taken in isolation. It further accounts for the way. utterance meaning, i.e., the meaning of an expression used in a concrete context of utterance, is related to expression meaning.

What is referring expression and example?

Referring expression is any expression used in an utterance to refer to something or someone, namely used with particular referent in the mind of the speaker. For example, when I utter “Belal called me last night”; I have a particular person in my mind when I say ‘Belal’, is a referring expression.

What are the types of referring expression?

Types of referring expressions

• Pronouns. The simplest type of referring expressions are pronoun such as he and it.
• Definite noun phrases.
• Spatial and temporal reference.
• Criteria for good expressions.
• Pre-2000 era.
• Later developments.
• Full Brevity.
• Greedy Heuristics.

What is a referring expression examples?

Can different expressions have the same referent?

Two expressions which have the same referent are said to be co-referential. In the sentence John had his dog with him, for instance, the noun John and the pronoun him are co-referential, since they both refer to the same person (John).

Can a universe of discourse be partly fictitious?

Note that no universe of discourse is a totally fictitious world. Santa Claus is a fiction, but the toy telephones he might bring do actually exist. When two people are arguing at cross-purposes they could be said to be working within partially different universes of discourse.

What is reference and referring expression?

Referring expressions: Any expression or a piece of language used in a utterance to refer to something or someone outside the language. Referents: A person or thing to which a linguistic expression or other symbol refers. Example.

How many types of referring expressions are there?

Definite noun phrases of various kinds, proper names (e.g. John), personal pronouns (e.g. he, it), and longer descriptive expressions can all be used as referring expressions. Definite noun phrases are usually referring expressions.

What is pragmatic reference?

In pragmatics, the act by which a speaker or writer uses language to enable a hearer or reader to identify something is called reference.

What does the presence of a predicate in a referring expression?

The presence of predicate in a referring expression helps the hearer to identify the referent of a referring expression. Notice that we have just drawn a distinction between referring and identifying the referent of a referring expression. We will explore this distinction.

What is a referring expression?

3.  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.

What is the difference between ‘definite and indefinite’ and ‘referring expression’?

 ‘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.

How to develop the notion of reference ?

Develop the notion of reference  by considering the range of expressions that speakers may use to refer to some object or person in the world.Referringexpression