Unit 4: REFERRING EXPRESSIONS

Referents
1. Definition of referring expression (person/thing)
Referring expression is any
expression used in an utterance to

uttering
refer to something or someone.

Thoughts
Specific images
Unit 4: REFERRING EXPRESSIONS
e.g. Dave loves me.
 Dave: referring expression
There’s no Dave in this class.
 No particular person in mind
 Not a referring expression
Unit 4: REFERRING EXPRESSIONS
Exercise: Could the following possibly be used as referring expressions?
1 John proper name
2 my uncle my  possessive adj – determiner
3 and conjunction
4 the girl sitting on the wall by the bus stop giving extra info
5 a man depending on the context
6 my parents my  possessive adj – determiner
7 send verb
8 under preposition
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2. Definite vs. Indefinite noun phrase
• ‘the’ is referred to as ‘the definite article’
• Noun phrase begins with ‘the’ is definite noun phrase.
e.g. the girl sitting on the wall by the bus stop
• ‘a/an’ is referred to as ‘the indefinite article’
• Noun phrase begins with ‘a/an’ is indefinite noun phrase.
e.g. I met a doctor yesterday.
Question: Can an indefinite noun phrase be a referring expression?
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3. Indefinite noun phrase
referring expression
Same expression + context 
not referring expression
 Same case with indefinite noun phrase.
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3. Indefinite noun phrase
1 When a speaker says, ‘A man was in here looking for you
last night’ is a man being used to refer to a particular man?
2 In the above example, is a man a referring expression?
3 When a speaker says, ‘The first sign of the monsoon is a
cloud on the horizon no bigger than a man’s hand’, is a man
being used to refer to a particular man?
4 Is a man in this example a referring expression?
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3. Indefinite noun phrase
5 Is forty buses, used in ‘Forty buses have been withdrawn
from service by the Liverpool Corporation’, a referring
expression?
6 Is forty buses, used in ‘This engine has the power of forty
buses’, a referring expression?
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3. Indefinite noun phrase
Are the following INDEFINITE NOUN PHRASES ‘referring
expressions’?
a. Norwegian, used in ‘Nancy married a Norwegian’
b. a Norwegian, used in ‘Nancy wants to marry a Norwegian’
c. a car, used in ‘John is looking for a car’
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3. Indefinite noun phrase
a. a Norwegian, used in ‘Nancy married a Norwegian’
 Yes. Simple past tense  Nancy has married  the speaker
knows exactly who he is.
Unit 4: REFERRING EXPRESSIONS
3. Indefinite noun phrase
b. a Norwegian, used in ‘Nancy wants to marry a Norwegian’
 Yes: The speaker knows who the Norwegian is
 No: The speaker just knows that Nancy wants to marry a
Norwegian
c. a car, used in ‘John is looking for a car’
 Yes: The speaker knows what car John is into
 No: The speaker knows the fact that John needs a car but has no
specific car in mind
 Ambiguity
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3. Indefinite noun phrase
Depending on what is in the mind of the speaker on a
particular occasion of utterance, indefinite noun phrases can
be referring expressions.
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4. Definite noun phrase
Are the following referring expressions?
a. John in ‘John is my best friend’
b. he in ‘He’s a very polite man’, said by a husband to his wife
in a conversation about their bank manager
c. it in ‘It’s sinking!’ used in a conversation about a battleship
which has just been attacked
d. the man who shot Abraham Lincoln in ‘The man who shot
Abraham Lincoln was an unemployed actor’
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4. Definite noun phrase
• Proper names
e.g. John, Dave, James, etc.
• Personal pronouns
e.g. he, it, etc.
• Longer descriptive expressions
 Can be used as referring expressions.
But is there any case that definite noun phrases are not
referring expressions?
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4. Definite noun phrase
Are the following referring expressions?
a. he in ‘If anyone ever marries Nancy, he’s in for a bad time’
(meaning that whoever marries Nancy is in for a bad time)
b. it in ‘Every man who owns a donkey beats it’
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4. Definite noun phrase
a. he in ‘If anyone ever marries Nancy, he’s in for a bad time’
(meaning that whoever marries Nancy is in for a bad time)
 No, the speaker has no particular individual in mind as
Nancy’s possible future husband.
b. it in ‘Every man who owns a donkey beats it’
 No, it doesn’t refer to any particular donkey here.
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5. Opaque context
• A context in which substitution of two referring expressions with the
same referent can result in different meanings when uttering.
• Opaque contexts involve a certain kind of verb, such as want, believe,
think, wonder
e.g. John’s brother murdered Harry.
Suppose that John doesn’t know that fact.
Do the two sentences below have the same meaning?
• John hopes that the murderer of Harry will be hanged.
• John hopes that his brother will be hanged.
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5. Opaque context
The Morning Star is the Evening Star: the planet Venus.
Assuming that Nancy does not know this, do the following make the
same claim about Nancy’s wishes?
‘Nancy wants to get married when the Morning Star is in the sky’
‘Nancy wants to get married when the Evening Star is in the sky’
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6. Equative sentence
Used to state clearly the identity of the referents of two referring
expressions, i.e. that two referring expressions have the same
referent.
e.g. Donald Trump is the president of the US.
That woman over there is my daughter’s teacher.
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6. Equative sentence
Are the following equative sentences?
1 John is the person in the corner
2 Henry the Eighth is the current President of the USA
3 Cairo is a large city
4 Dr Jekyll is Mr Hyde
5 Ted is an idiot
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6. Equative sentence
• The order of the two referring expressions can be reversed without
loss of acceptability.
e.g. The largest city in Africa is Cairo
Cairo is the largest city in Africa
• Note: not all reversible sentences are equative sentence.
e.g.
What I need is a pint of Tiger. (A)
A pint of Tiger is what I need. (B)
(A) The speaker doesn’t have any particular pint of Guinness in mind.
Unit 5: PREDICATES
1. Predicator
Sentence = referring expressions + other words

the remainder
e.g. John’s car is red.

RE the remainder
She is writing the Mayor’s speech.

RE the remainder RE
Unit 5: PREDICATES
1. Predicator
From the remainder, we can find the word/part of the word that carries
specific information.
e.g. John’s car is red.
 ‘red’ carries specific information
She is writing the Mayor’s speech.
 ‘write’ carries specific information
 ‘red’, ‘write’ are predicators.
Unit 5: PREDICATES
1. Predicator
A predicator:
• does not belong to any of the referring expressions
• of the remainder, makes the most specific contribution to the
meaning of the sentence.
 describes the state or process in which the referring expressions are
involved.
e.g. Mummy is asleep.  asleep
The white man loved the Indian maiden.  love
Jimmy was waiting for the downtown bus.  wait for
Unit 5: PREDICATES
1. Predicator
Predicator can be all parts of speech:
• Adjectives: hungry, whimsical, etc.
• Verbs: live, show, etc.
• Nouns: crook, coward, saint, etc.
• Prepositions: in, at, on, under, etc.
Except:
• Conjunction: and, but, or
• Article: a, an, the
• To be: is, am, are, was, etc.
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1. Predicator
Exercise: Identify the predicators in the following sentences:
a. I am hungry
b. Joe is in San Francisco
c. The Mayor is a crook
d. The man who lives at number 10 Lee Crescent is whimsical
e. The Royal Scottish Museum is behind Old College
Unit 5: PREDICATES
1. Predicator
Exercise: Identify the predicators in the following sentences:
a. I am hungry
b. Joe is in San Francisco
c. The Mayor is a crook
d. The man who lives at number 10 Lee Crescent is whimsical
e. The Royal Scottish Museum is behind Old College
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2. Predicate
any word (or sequence of words) which (in a given single
sense) can function as the predicator of a sentence.

A tall , handsome stranger entered the saloon.

PREDICATES
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2. Predicate
Are the following predicates?
a. dusty
b. drink
c. woman
d. you
e. Fred
f. about
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3. Predicate vs. Predicator
Predicates in a sentence can be predicator in other sentences.
e.g. A tall, handsome stranger entered the saloon.
• John is tall.
• He is handsome.
• He is a stranger.
• That ramshackle building is a saloon.
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3. Predicate vs. Predicator
In which sentences does the predicate male function as a
predicator?
a. The male gorilla at the zoo had a nasty accident yesterday
b. The gorilla at the zoo is a male
c. The gorilla at the zoo is male
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4. Degree of a predicate
Peter chased Mary.
a. Who did the chasing?
 Peter
b. Who got chased?
 Mary
c. Which word describes the character of the event?
 chased
d. Who are the participants in this event?
 Peter and Mary
The word which functions as the verb is called predicate
The nouns are called arguments.
4. Degree of a predicate
a. Selena slept
argument predicate
b. I saw Mary
argument predicate argument
c. Percy placed the penguin on the podium
argument predicate argument argument
How many arguments does the word ‘sleep’ involve?
1
 sleep: predicate of degree one / one-place predicate
4. Degree of a predicate
a. Selena slept
argument predicate
b. I saw Mary
argument predicate argument
c. Percy placed the penguin on the podium
argument predicate argument argument
How many arguments does the word ‘see’ involve?
2
 see: predicate of degree two / two-place predicate
4. Degree of a predicate
a. Selena slept
argument predicate
b. I saw Mary
argument predicate argument
c. Percy placed the penguin on the podium
argument predicate argument argument
How many arguments does the word ‘place’ involve?
3
 place: predicate of degree three / three-place predicate
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4. Degree of a predicate
What is degree of a predicate?
 A number showing how many arguments a predicate involves.
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4. Degree of a predicate
• One-place predicate: most NOUNS, most ADJs, intransitive VERBS
e.g. John is kind.
The baby’s sleeping.
He’s a hero.
However:
John is afraid of Dave
Your house is different from mine
Are ‘of’ and ‘from’ in those sentences predicates?
 No, they are linking particles  meaningless
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4. Degree of a predicate
• A few nouns could be said to be ‘inherently relational’:
father, son, brother, mother, daughter, neighbour
e.g. John is a brother of Mia.
 two-place predicate
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4. Degree of a predicate
Two-place predicate can be transitive VERBS, PREPOSITIONS
e.g. Steve Job created the first generation of iPhone.
The book is under the table.
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4. Degree of a predicate
Three-place predicate: PREPOSITIONS like ‘between’, ditransitive
VERBS like ‘give’
e.g. Alex gave me the map.
The bookstore is between the bank and the Apple
store.
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5. The role of the verb be
• The identity of the referents of two different referring
expressions is expressed by a form of the verb be.
• Can be seen in equative sentences.
e.g. This is my father
The person I was telling you about at dinner last
night is the man talking to Harry
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5. The role of the verb be
• A grammatical device for linking a predicate that is not a verb
to its first argument.
• A device for ‘carrying’ the tense
e.g. John is a fool.
John is foolish
Unit 6: PREDICATES, REFFERING
EXPRESSIONS, AND UNIVERSE OF
DISCOURSE
1. Relationship between predicate and referring expression
Steve attacked a tall, poor man.

predicates
a. Can the predicates ‘tall’ and ‘poor’ refer to any entity?
b. When they are put in the expression ‘a tall, poor man’, can we
identify any entity?
 Predicates do not refer. However, when it is
contained in the meaning of referring expression,
it can help identifying the referent of that expression.
1. Relationship between predicate and referring expression
a. John attacked a man.
Is ‘a man’ a referring expression?
b. John is a man.
Is ‘a man’ a referring expression?
 ‘a man’ can be a referring expression or a predicating
expression
 depending on the CONTEXT that a indefinite noun phrase a
referring expression or a predicating expression
2. Generic sentence
Generic sentences express generalizations about objects or
situations in the world.
e.g. The whale is a mammal.
Cat is a carnivore.
 REFERRING EXPRESSIONS

REFERENTS
REAL PHYSICAL UNREAL ABSTRACT
Garden Chair Santa Claus Happiness

Horse Market Pegasus Yesterday

Seahorse Screwdriver Leviathan Twelve o’clock

Bull Water Minotaur Percentage

3. Universe of discourse
Universe of discourse for an utterance: the particular world (the
(real / imaginary / part real, part imaginary) that the speaker
assumes he is talking about at a time.
e.g. ‘The Earth revolves around the Sun’
 the real world
‘The dragon set fire to the woods with his hot breath’
 the imaginary world
‘Santa Clause might bring you a toy telephone’
 part real, part imaginary
 Successful communication

UOD of Speaker A UOD of Speaker B

Unsuccessful communication

UOD of Speaker A UOD of Speaker B

• Theist: ‘Diseases must serve some good purpose, or God would not
allow them’
• Atheist: ‘I cannot accept your idea’
 Different universe of discourse
 Group Discussion
1. Which of the followings could f. Mary
be used as referring 2. Decide whether the italicised
expressions? noun phrases are referring
a. my table expressions or not.
b. a unicorn a. His father married a dancer
c. no love b. John wants to marry a dancer
d. travel c. The whale is the largest
e. or mammal
d. The man who shot Kennedy
was Lee Harvey Oswald.
Group Discussion
3. Indicate the arguments and predicator(s) in each sentence.
Then indicate the degree of the predicates used as a
predicator in each sentence.
a. Uncle smiles.
b. John loves Mary.
c. John gave Mary a ring.
d. Chicago is between Los Angeles and New York.
Group Discussion
4. Which of the following are generic sentences?
a. Americans like to eat apple pie
b. Fred likes to buy Uzis
c. A bird lays eggs
d. My pet finch just lay an egg
5. Give a short example of a conversation which illustrates that
the participants are working within different universe of
discourse.