27/10/2023

Example from Mey (2003)

The context: You are in a foreign country, in a hotel room.

Suddenly there is a knock on the door. The conversation goes as

Reference
follows:

- Who’s there?
- It’s me.

and inference - Who me?

- A friend.

- Which friend?
- Natasha’s mother.

Me, a friend, Natasha’s mother - referring expressions

Inferring – trying to figure out the referents based on the co-text,

context and previous knowledge

1 2

Referring expressions can be:

Pragmatics: Reference and inference
Yule (1996): “Words themselves do not (a) proper nouns:
refer to anything, people refer”
‘Podgorica’ ‘Bill Clinton’
Reference is an act in which a
speaker/writer uses various linguistic
forms to enable a listener/reader to
identify something.

These various linguistic forms are

referring expressions.

3 4

1
 27/10/2023

(b) noun phrases (definite):

‘The city’ ‘The former president of the USA’ (c) noun phrases (indefinite):

‘A place’ ‘A man’

5 6

The choice of one type of referring

(d) pronouns: expression rather than another seems
to be based, to a large extent, on what
‘It’ ‘He, him’
the speaker assumes the listener
already knows.

Reference is clearly tied to the

speaker’s goals and beliefs in the use
of language.

7 8

2
 27/10/2023

Referential vs. attributive use

Attributive use vs. referential use

a) There is a man at the door. – referential

Attributive use, meaning
(concrete, identifiable, physically present referent)
b) There might be a man waiting for you 'whoever/whatever fits the description’.
outside. referential (the speaker presupposes
that the referent exists, although he/she is not Distinct from referential use: a specific
sure) person is referred to.
c) He wants to marry a beautiful woman with
lots of money. Attributive (no concrete referent)
d) We'd love to find a nine-foot-tall basketball
player. Attributive (no concrete referent, the
referent may not even exist)

9 10

For successful reference to occur, we The role of inference in communication

must also recognize the role of is to allow the listener to identify
inference. correctly which particular entity the
speaker is referring to. We can even
What are inferences? use vague expressions relying on the
listener’s ability to infer what is the
Inferring is connecting prior referent that we have in mind.
knowledge to text-based information
to create meaning beyond what is
directly stated.

11 12

3
 27/10/2023

It is aided by the linguistic material, or co-text,

accompanying the referring expression. The referring
expression actually provides a range of references,
"In reference, there is a basic collaboration that is, a number of possible referents.

at work: In the examples below, the referring expression

'cheese sandwich' provides a number of possible
‘intention-to-identify’ and referents. However, the different co-texts lead to a
different type of interpretation in each case.
'recognition-of-intention’.
a) Cheese sandwich is made with white bread.
b) The cheese sandwich left without paying.

13 14

Yule: “The co-text is just a linguistic part of the In English, initial reference is often
environment in which a referring expression is used.
The physical environment, or context, is perhaps indefinite. The definite noun phrases
more easily recognized as having a powerful impact and the pronouns are examples of
on how referring expressions are to be interpreted. subsequent reference to already
Reference, then, is not simply a relationship
between the meaning of a word or phrase and an introduced referents, generally known
object or person in the world. It is a social act, in as anaphoric reference, or anaphora".
which the speaker assumes that the word or phrase In technical terms, the second or
chosen to identify an object or person will be
interpreted as the speaker intended”. subsequent expression is the
anaphora and the initial expression is
the antecedent.

15 16

4
 27/10/2023

Example:

Peel and slice six potatoes. Put them in

cold salted water.

The initial referring expression 'six

- Deictic reference (time,
potatoes' identifies something different place, person deixis)
from the anaphoric pronoun 'them', - Homophora

which must be interpreted as 'the six

peeled and sliced potatoes'.

17 18

Reference 1. Exophoric reference

TYPE 1: The identity of a presuming item can be retrieved from the
The identity of a presuming reference item general, cultural or shared knowledge: homophora
- How hot the sun is today!
may be retrievable from: (we all know which sun we are talking about, the specific sun of our solar system)
- ‘the King’
- the surrounding text (endophoric (when somebody in the UK refers to the King, we all know they are referencing King
reference), Charles. It remains an exophoric reference as 'the King’ cannot be understood
without the cultural context of knowing who he is)

- or outside the text (exophoric - 'The baby is hungry, it needs to be fed’

(A couple referring to their newborn. The listener is only aware of which baby that is
reference). based on the shared knowledge.)
- 'The headteacher is holding a parent-teacher conference next week’
(students referring to their headteacher. There are many headteachers in many
schools, but the students' shared knowledge is what enables the referent to be
recognized).

19 20

5
 27/10/2023

1. Exophoric reference 2. Endophoric reference

TYPE 2. The identity of a presuming item • the identity of a presuming item can be
can be retrieved from the immediate retrieved from elsewhere within the text itself.
context of situation: deixis The identity of the participant is usually given
at an earlier point in the text:
- Put it down next to her, please.
(if you are in the same place and in the
same time, you are able to decode the it - A man rang on the door. He was wearing a
black coat.
and her)
(the identity of the man participant identified as HE
has been revealed earlier in the text)

21 22

2. Endophoric reference
• Reference to elements which can be
reconstructed from inside the text.
• It can be:
a) cataphoric, pointing forwards, as in:
This is how he said it. He shouted and…
- The news came as a terrible shock to Mrs.
Mallard. It seemed her husband Brently had
been killed in a railroad disaster.
b) anaphoric, pointing backwards, as in:
- I met John in the station. He was completely
drunk.
- A woman rang on the door. She was wearing a
black coat.
23 24

6
 27/10/2023

Exercise 1
• Decide whether the following cases of
endophoric reference are anaphoric or
cataphoric:
1.If a man has talent and can't use it, he's
failed.
Anaphoric
1.No woman can call herself free until she can
choose consciously whether she will or will
not be a mother.
Anaphoric

25 26

3. Why do we envy him, the bankrupt man? 7. The object felt heavy in his hands. Inside it was
Cataphoric a key.
4. A few weeks before he left, John gave us an Anaphoric
old cigar box. 8. Too scared to buy before they sell, some
Cataphoric homeowners aim for a trade.
5. Some careless driver backed into our car. Cataphoric
Such people make me mad. 9. The book was there on the table. I’d never read
Anaphoric Moby Dick and I didn’t intend to do so now.
6. This, I now realize, was a very bad idea – Cataphoric
suggesting we do whatever Jennifer wants
10. Michael went to the bank. He was annoyed
for the day.
because it was closed.
Cataphoric
Anaphoric

27 28

7
 27/10/2023

3. You entered into a tiny little hallway and the

Exercise 2 kitchen was off that.
• What type of reference (exophoric or Endophoric - anaphoric
endophoric) do we have in the following 4. We could move that table.
examples?
Exophoric
1.The government are to blame for
unemployment. 5. I saw Sally yesterday. She was lying on the
exophoric beach.
2. This is how to get the best results. You let Endophoric - anaphoric
the berries dry in the sun, till all the moisture 6. It was charming, that little bistro in Regent
has gone out of them. Then you gather them
up and chop them very fine. Square.
Endophoric - cataphoric Endophoric - cataphoric

29 30

7. The queen to visit India (newspaper Exercise 3

headline)
Exophoric - homophoric • Find instances of endophoric reference
and decide on the type:
8. Take a look at this.
Exophoric - deictic • Mr. Kaplan rose, inspiration in his eyes. His
9. On 7 May 1945, Germany surrendered to smile was so wide that his face seemed to be
the Allied Forces and the war was over. one ecstatic cavern. He cast majestic glances
to both sides, as if reading the tribute in the
Exophoric faces of his fellow students.
10. If you need it, there’s a towel in the top • his (eyes), his (smile), his (face), he, his
drawer. (fellow students) – endophoric (anaphora)
Endophoric - cataphoric
31 32

8
 27/10/2023

• I have a kind neighbor. He is Agus Mulyono. • When the CSI team arrived at the crime
He works in a hospital. It is located not so far scene, these words were scribbled on the
from his house. Mr. Agus has lived there for bathroom mirror: I’ll be back.
more than ten years with his family. They are
• When the CSI team arrived at the crime
Mrs. Siti and two sons named Boby and
Agung. scene, these words were scribbled on the
bathroom mirror: I’ll be back. (endophoric
• I have a kind neighbor. He is Agus Mulyono.
– cataphora)
He works in a hospital. It is located not so far
from his house. Mr. Agus has lived there for
more than ten years with his family. They are
Mrs. Siti and two sons named Boby and
Agung. (endophoric – anaphora)

33 34