Concept
Referent
Overview
A referent ( REF-ər-ənt) is an entity to which a name – a linguistic expression or other symbol – refers. For example, in the sentence Mary saw me, the referent of the word Mary is the particular person called Mary who is being spoken of, while the referent of the word me is the person uttering the sentence.
Two expressions which have the same referent are said to be co-referential. In the sentence John had his dog with him, for instance, the noun John and the pronoun him are co-referential, since they both refer to the same person (John).
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
In the English language this is commonly done, by prefixing, what are called the personal pronouns, to the general word which expresses the event affirmed. _I came_, _you came_, _he_ or _it came_; in these phrases the event of having come is, in the first, affirmed of the speaker; in the second, of the person spoken to; in the third, of some other person, or object. The first formers of language, it may be imagined…
Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments
States what Referent is.
This word, therefore, expressing so very abstract and metaphysical an idea, would not easily or readily occur to the first formers of language. What are called the personal pronouns, it may be observed, are among the last words of which children learn to make use. A child, speaking of itself, says, _Billy walks_, _Billy sits_, **instead of _I walk_, _I sit_.
Adam Smith, The Essays of Adam Smith
States what Referent is.
Those things are called relative, which, being either said to be of something else or related to something else, are explained by reference to that other thing. For instance, the word 'superior' is explained by reference to something else, for it is superiority over something else that is meant.
Aristotle, The Categories
States what Referent is.
Philosophers who discussed Referent
Related ideas
- Reference
- Noam Chomsky
- Oxford English Dictionary
- Linguistics
- Merriam-Webster
- University of Cambridge
- Syntax
- Semantics
- Semiotics
- Noun
- Symbol
- Entity
- Logic
- Computer programming
Place in the tradition
Part of Descriptivist theory of names.