Journal

REFERENCE AND DEIXIS

Chapter 19

Types of reference:

Definite

Indefinite

Generic

THREE TYPES OF REFERENCE

The most crucial for the functioning of language.

The intended referential target is necessarily a particular entity

The speaker intends that the referential target should be uniquely identified for the hearer

The act of reference brings an implicit assurance the hearer has enough information to identify the referent

DEFINITE REFERENCE

Normal input and output conditions hold

The act of reference is embedded in a more inclusive speech act.

The speaker intends that the hearer should recognize his intention to refer by virtue of his having produced the utterance in question.

The part of the utterance the production of which is intended to signal the intention to refer, should have a form which conventionally performs this function.

Identification of the referents of definite referring expressions is necessary so that the hearer can reconstruct the proposition being expressed by the speaker

DEFINITE REFERENCE (CONTINUED)

The identity of the referent is not relevant to the message.

Only the class features indicated are presented as relevant.

The use of an indefinite implicates that reference is not knowingly being made to an item defined by the linguistic expression used.

INDEFINITE REFERENCE

Reference to a class of referents

Two sorts of proposition involving generic reference as argument:

Collective reading- something is predicated of the whole class referred to

Distributed reading- something is predicated of each member of the class

GENERIC REFERENCE

The referent that the proposition is about

Often corresponds with the subject of the sentence expressing sing the proposition

Often corresponds with the first element in the sentence

Cannot be characterized without taking context into account

TOPIC

Usually applied to declarative sentences

It is the part of the sentence which is crucial to the ability of the sentence to convey a piece of information to the hearer

Three main types of focus structure:

predicate focus

argument focus

sentence focus

FOCUS

NP with definite determiners

The types of help that speakers give to hearers:

(Note: A given expression may incorporate more than one of these.)

describing

pointing

naming

TYPES OF DEFINITE REFERRING EXPRESSIONS

There are two diametrically opposed extreme positions:

Proper names have no meaning whatsoever

this is usually expressed by saying that they have extension, but no intension.

Proper names function as abbreviated descriptions

they stand for the sum of the properties ties that distinguish the bearer from all other referents

they get their meaning by association, not with generic concepts, in the way that common nouns

PROPER NAMES

Things that can be referred to in the course of a discourse

Are either entities or propositions

Syntax-expressed by categories that function as arguments

NPs, pronouns, certain types of subordinate clause

Expressions which function as predicates do not refer to anything

attribute properties to referents

designate relations between referents.

DISCOURSE REFERENTS

Does not require familiarity with or knowledge of the referent

Does require that the hearer have a mental representation of the referent which can function as a locus for attaching new information

IDENTIFIABILITY OF REFERENTS

Clearest signals that a speaker presupposes that a representation is active in the hearer's mind:

the use of pronouns

unstressed pronunciation

ACTIVE REPRESENTATIONS

Marking of an inactive representation is:

by means of a pitch accent on the referring phrase

by full lexical coding

INACTIVE REPRESENTATIONS

Accessible representations: the topic of a sentence must be active or accessible.

Three types of accessibility:

textually accessible

inferentially accessible

situationally accessible

INACTIVE REFERENT STRESSED REFERRING EXPRESSION

A referent is textually accessible if:

it has been mentioned in previous talk

is not fully active

is not completely inactive

is easily recovered

TEXTUAL ACCESSIBILITY

A referent is inferentially accessible if:

it has not previously been mentioned

its potential current relevance can be inferred from a currently active referent

INFERENTIAL ACCESSIBILITY

A referent is situationally accessible if:

it is present in the immediate context of the discourse

has not so far been mentioned

it is not inferable from what has been said

SITUATIONAL ACCESSIBILITY

Five main types of deixis:

person deixis-involves the speaker, the addressee, and other significant participants in the speech situation

spatial deixis-manifests itself principally in the form of locative adverbs and demonstrative/determiners

temporal deixis-function to locate points or intervals on the time axis using the moment of utterance as a reference point

social deixis-exemplified by certain uses of the so-called TV (tu/vous) pronouns in many languages

discourse deixis-refers to such matters as the use of this to point to future discourse elements, and that to point to past discourse elements

DEIXIS