The document discusses reference and inference in language. It provides examples to illustrate several key points: 1) Words themselves do not refer to anything directly, but rather people use words to refer to people and things. Successful reference depends on collaboration between the speaker and listener. 2) Listeners make inferences to identify the intended referents of referring expressions based on context clues. Inferences go beyond what is explicitly stated to derive meaning. 3) Referring expressions like pronouns establish anaphoric relationships where the antecedent is the initial reference and subsequent references are anaphors that depend on inferences to identify the same referent. Successful reference relies on shared assumptions between speakers and listeners.

1. Reference and Inference
Pragmatics : Sheet 3
Yule: “Words themselves do not refer to anything, people refer”
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2. Female volunteers are needed to participate in a graduation project
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3. In discussing deixis, we assumed that the use of
words to refer to people and things was a simple
matter. However, words themselves don't refer to
anything. People refer.
We often assume that the words we use to
identify things are in some direct relationship to
those things. It's not as simple as that. We may
not actually know someone's name, but that
doesn't prevent us from referring to the person
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4. Linguistic forms are referring
expressions.
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5. The choice of one type of referring
expression rather than another seems
to be based, to a large extent, on what
the speaker assumes the listener
already knows.
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6. Proper nouns, definite and indefinite
phrases
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7. (a) proper nouns:
‘Misurata’
‘Mustafa Abdul Jalil’
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8. (b) noun phrases (definite):
‘The city’
‘The Former NTC President’
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9. (c) noun phrases (indefinite):
‘A place’
‘A man’
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10. They can be:
(d) pronouns:
‘It’
‘He, him’
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11.  A brand name for cars can obviously be used for a person.

Similarly, in a restaurant, one waiter can ask another Where's the
fresh salad sitting? and receive the reply He's sitting by the door.
 As an English student, you might ask someone can I look at your
Chomsky ? and get the response Sure, it's on the shelf over there.
 These examples make it clear that we can use names associated with
things (salad) to refer to people and names of people (Chomsky) to
refer to things.
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12. For successful reference to occur, we
must also recognize the role of
inference.
What are inferences?
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13. Inferring is connecting prior
knowledge to text based information
to create meaning beyond what is
directly stated.
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14. An inference is any additional information used by the
listener to connect what is said to what must be
meant. In the last example, the listener has to infer
that the name of the writer of a book can be used to
identify a book by that writer. Similar types of
inferences are necessary to understand someone who
says that Picasso is in the museum or We saw
Shakespeare in London or I enjoy listening to Mozart.
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15. The role of inference in
communication is to allow the
listener to identify correctly which
particular entity the speaker is
referring to. We can even use vague
expressions relying on the listener’s
ability to infer what is the referent
that we have in mind.
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16. Listeners make inferences about what
is said in order to arrive at an
interpretation of the speaker’s
intended meaning. The choice of one
type of referring expression rather
than another seems to be based on
what the speaker assumes the listener
already knows.
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17. Because there is no direct relationship
between entities and words, the
listener’s task is to infer which entity
the speaker intends to identify by
using a particular expression:
“Mister Aftershave is late today”
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18. 1) Reference ---- the act by which a speaker or
writer uses language to enable a hearer or reader
to identify something.
 2) Inference ---- any additional information used
by the hearer to connect what is said to what
must be meant.
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19. "In reference there is a basic
collaboration at work:
‘intention-to-identify’ and
'recognition-of-intention’.
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20. Collaboration
This process needs not only work
between one 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.
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21.  When we establish a referent (Can I borrow your book?)
and subsequently refer to the same object (Yeah, it's on
the table), we have a particular kind of referential
relationship between book and it. The second (and any
subsequent) referring expression is an example of
anaphora and the first mention is called the antecedent.
Thus, book is the antecedent and it is the anaphoric
expression.
 Anaphora can be defined as subsequent reference to an
already introduced entity.Most1y we use anaphora in texts
to maintain reference. As with other types of reference,
the connection between referent and anaphora may not
always be direct.
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22. In technical terms, the second or
subsequent expression is the anaphor
and the initial is the antecedent:
antecedent
a man → the man → he
a woman → the woman → she
he + she → they
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23. Anaphoric reference
After the initial introduction of some entity, speakers will use
various expressions to maintain reference:
“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”
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24. is used to first insert an expression or word that
co-refers with a later expression in the discourse
I almost stepped on it. There was a snake in the
middle of the path.

25. Reference is clearly tied to the
speaker’s goals and beliefs in the use
of language.
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26. Yule (p.18) "it is important to recognize
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"
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27. Examples: (p:18, 19)
a) There's a man waiting for you.
b) He wants to marry a woman with lots
of money.
c) We'd love to find a nine-foot-tall
basketball player
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28. Attributive use / referential use
a man waiting for you
a woman with lots of money
a nine-foot-tall basketball player
This is sometimes called an attributive use,
meaning 'whoever/whatever fits the description'.
It would be distinct from a referential use: a
specific person is referred to, although his/her
name or some other description is not used.
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29. Yule:“Our ability to identify intended referents
has actually depended on more than our
understanding of the referring expression".
It has been aided by the linguistic material, or co-text,
accompanying the referring expression. The referring
expression actually provides a range of reference, that
is, a number of possible referents. In the examples
below, the referring expression 'cheese sandwich‘
provides a number of possible referents. However, the
different co-texts lead to a different type of
interpretation in each case.
a) Cheese sandwich is made with white bread.
b) The cheese sandwich left without paying.
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30. ...won the match

31. Yule: “The co-text is just 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.
Reference, then, 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”.
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32. Example:
Peel and slice six potatoes. Put them in
cold salted water
The initial referring expression 'six
potatoes' identifies something different
from the anaphoric pronoun 'them',
which must be interpreted as 'the six
peeled and sliced potatoes”.
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33. When the interpretation requires us to
identify an entity, and no linguistic
expression is presented, it is called zero
anaphora, or ellipsis.
“Peel an onion and slice it. Drop the
slices into hot oil. Cook for three
minutes.”
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34. Zero anaphora or ellipsis
The use of zero anaphora clearly creates an expectation
that the listener will be able to infer who or what the
speaker intends to identify:
1. Peel an onion and slice it.
2. Drop the slices into hot oil.
3. Cook ∅ for three minutes.
∅ = ‘slices’, ‘them’.
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35. Yule: "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
collaborate and interpret those
expressions as the speaker intended".
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36. Yule: “Successful reference means that
an intention was recognized, via
inference, indicating a kind of shared
knowledge and hence social
connection”
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37. Successful reference is necessarily
collaborative (‘shared knowledge’). It
allows us to make sense of the following
sentences:
“Picasso’s on the far wall”
“My Rolling Stones is missing”
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38. Successful reference means that an
intention was recognized, via inference,
indicating a kind of shared knowledge
and hence social connection.
Don’t forget:
Pragmatics is the study of how more gets
communicated than is said.
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39. Consider the following complaint: I was waiting
for the bus, but he just drove by without stopping.
Notice that the antecedent is bus and the
anaphoric expression is he. We would normally
expect it to be used for a bus. Obviously there is
an inference involved here: if someone is talking
about a bus in motion, assume that there is a
driver. That assumed driver is the inferred
referent for he. The term 'inference' has been used
here to describe what the listener (or reader)
does. When we talk about an assumption made by
the speaker (or writer), we usually talk about a
'presupposition'.
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40.  When a speaker uses referring expressions like this, he or
Shakespeare, in normal circumstances, she is working with
an assumption that the hearer knows which referent is
intended. In a more general way, speakers continually
design their linguistic messages on the basis of
assumptions about what their hearers already know. These
assumptions may be mistaken, of course, but they underlie
much of what we say in the everyday use of language.
 What a speaker assumes is true or is known by the hearer
can be described as a presupposition
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41.  If someone tells you Your brother is waiting outside for
you, there is an obvious presupposition that you have a
brother. If you are asked Why did you arrive late? there is
a presupposition that you did arrive late. And if you are
asked the following question, there are at least two
presuppositions involved: When did you stop smoking
cigars? In asking this question, the speaker presupposes
that you used to smoke cigars? and that you no longer do
so. Questions like this, with built-in presuppositions, are
very useful devices for interrogators or trial lawyers. If the
defendant is asked by the prosecutor Okay, Mr. Smith,
how fast were you going when you ran the red light?, there
is a presupposition that Mr. Smith did, in fact, run the red
light.
 If he simply answers the How fast part of the question, by
giving a speed, he is behaving as if the presupposition is
correct
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42.  One of the tests used to check for the presuppositions
underlying sentences involves negating a sentence with a
particular presupposition and considering whether the
presupposition remains true. Take the sentence My car is
a wreck. Now take the negative version of this sentence:
My car is not a wreck. Notice that, although these two
sentences have opposite meanings, the underlying
presupposition, I have a car, remains true in both. This is
called the constancy under negation test for
presupposition. If someone says I used to regret marrying
him, but I don't regret marrying him now, the
presupposition (I married him) remains constant even
though the verb regret changes from being affirmative to
being negative.
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43. What kind of inference is involved in interpreting
these utterances:
(a) Professor: Bring your Plato to class tomorrow.
(b) Nurse: The broken leg in room 5 wants to
talk to the doctor.
What are the anaphoric expressions in:
Dr. Dang gave Mary some medicine after she
asked him for it.
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