Eka Hardiani (157835441)

Reference and Inference

Reference is an act in which a speaker, or writer, uses linguistic forms to

enable a listener, or reader, to identify something. These linguistic forms are
called referring expressions. They can be proper nouns, e.g. Brasilia, Bill
Clinton; noun phrases (definite) e.g. the city, the ex-president; noun phrases
(indefinite) e.g. a place, a man; pronouns e.g. It, he, him. The choice of one
type of referring expression rather than another seems to be based, to large
extent, on what the speaker assumes the listener already know. Reference is
clearly tied to the speakers goals and beliefs in the use of language.
It is important that not all referring expressions have identifiable physical
referents. Indefinite noun phrases can be used to identify a physically present
entity, but they can also be used to describe entities that are assumed to exist,
but are unknown, or entities that, as far as we know, do not exist.
Examples:
1. Theres a man waiting for you.
2. He wants to marry a woman with lots of money.
3. Wed love to find a nine-foot-tall basketball player.

Attribute use can be defined as an entity that is known to the speaker

only in terms of its descriptive properties. The word a could be replaced by
any in this case whose meaning is whoever/whatever fits the description. In
other hand, taking the same sentence example, in referential use, the speaker
actually has a person in mind and, instead of using her name or some other
descriptions; he chooses the expression, perhaps because he thinks the hearer
would be more interested that this woman has lots of money than that she has a
name.
The point of this distinction between referential and attribute uses is that
expressions themselves cannot be treated as having reference, but are, or are
not, invested with referential function in a context by a speaker or writer.
Speakers often invited us to assume, via attributive uses, that we can identify
what theyre talking about, even when the entity or individual described may not
exist.

For successful reference to occur, we must also recognize the role of

inference. Inferring is connecting prior know ledge to text based information to
create meaning beyond what is directly stated. The role of inference is

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Reference and Inference

communication is to allow the listener to identify correctly which particular entity

the speaker is referring to. We can even use unclear expression relying on the
listeners ability to infer what the referent that we have in mind is. Listeners
make inferences about what is said in order to arrive at an interpretation of the
speakers intended meaning. Because there is no direct relationship between
entities and words, the listeners task is to infer which entity the speaker intends
to identify by using a particular expression.

In reference there is a basic collaboration at work: intention-to-identify

and recognition-of-intention, i.e. this process needs not only work between on
speaker and one listener; it appears to work, in terms of convention, between all
members of a community who share a common language and culture.

A truly pragmatic view of reference allows us to see how a person can be

identified via the expression, the cheese sandwich, and a thing can be
recognized via the name, Shakespeare.
A : Can I borrow your Shakespeare?
B : Yeah, its over there on the table.
The proposed referent and the inferred referent would not be a person, but
probably a book (notice the pronoun it)
A : Wheres the cheese sandwich sitting?
B : Hes over there by the window.
The referent being identified is not a thing, but a person.
1. Shakespeare takes up the whole bottom shelf.
2. Were going to see Shakespeare in London.
This convention does not only apply to writers, but also to artists, composers,
musicians and many other producers of objects, e.g. Picassos on the far wall.
A pragmatic connection between proper names and objects will be
conventionally associated, within a socio-culturaly defined community, with
those names. Using a proper name referentially to identify any such object
invites the listener to make the expected inference. For example:
Brazil wins World Cup. (The referent is to be understood as a soccer
team, not as a government).

Co-text deals with the contextual context or the context of the text itself.
Our ability to identify intended referents has actually depended on more than

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our understanding of the referring expression. It has been aided by the linguistic
material, or co-text, accompanying the referring expression. The co-text clearly
limits the range of possible interpretations we might have for a word. Co-text is
simply a linguistic part of the environment in which a referring expression is
used. The physical environment, or context, is perhaps more easily recognized
as having a powerful impact on how referring expressions are to be interpreted.
For example:
The heart-attack mustnt be moved. (The context is hospital)

These examples provide some support for an analysis of reference that

depends on local context and the local knowledge of the participants. It may
crucially depend on familiarity with the local socio-cultural conventions as the
basis for inference. (For example, if a person is in a hospital with an illness,
then he or she can be identified by nurses via the name of the illness).
Reference, is not simply a relationship between the meaning of a word or
phrase and an object or person in the world. It is a social act, in which the
speaker assumes that the word or phrase chosen to identify an object or person
will be interpreted as the speaker intended.
In most of our speech and writing, we have to concern of whom or what
we are talking about for more than one at a time. For example:
In the film, a man and a woman were trying to wash a cat. The man
was holding the cat while the woman poured water on it. He said
something to her and they started laughing.

Indefinite (A man, a woman and a cat) is initial reference (introductory mention)

or antecedent. The definite noun phrases (the man, the cat, the woman) and
pronoun (it, he, her, they) is anaphoric reference or anaphora (subsequent
reference to already introduced referents).
Anaphoric reference used as a process of continuing to identify exactly
the same entity as denoted by the antecedent. In many cases, that assumption
makes little difference to the interpretation, but in those cases where some
change or effect is described, the anaphoric reference must be interpreted
differently.

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There is also a reversal of the antecedentanaphor pattern sometimes

found at the beginning of stories.
I turned the corner and almost stepped on it. There was a large snake in
the middle of the path.
The pronoun it is used first and is difficult to interpret until the full noun phrase
is presented in the next line. This pattern is technically known as cataphora.
Peel an onion and slice it. Drop the slices into hot oil. Cook for three
minutes.
When the interpretation requires us to identify an entity (Cook for three
minutes) and no linguistic expression is present, it is called zero anaphora, or
ellipsis. The use of zero anaphora as a means of maintaining reference clearly
creates an expectation that the listener will be able to infer who or what the
speaker intends to identify.
When the anaphoric expressions dont seem to be linguistically
connected to their antecedents, the listener is also expected to make more
specific types of inference.
I just rented a house. The kitchen is really big.

Making sense of the example requires an inference (i.e. if x is a house, then x

has a kitchen) to make the anaphoric connection.

Successful reference does not depend on grammatically correct,

relationship between the properties of the referent and the referring expression
chosen. The key to making sense of reference is that pragmatic process
whereby speakers select linguistic expressions with the intention of identifying
certain entities and with the assumption that listeners will understand and
collaborate those expressions as the speaker intended.

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