1. PREDICATES, REFERRING
EXPRESSIONS,
AND UNIVERSE OF DISCOURSE
1 UNIT 6

2. INTRODUCTION / OUTLINE
 Reference & predication
 Explore the distinction and the relationship
between referring expressions & predicates.
 How the same word can be used for the radically
different functions of reference and predication.
 How these two functions fit together in the overall
language system.
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3.  Some expressions are almost always referring
expressions no matter what sentences they occur in.
  proper names
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 T. S. Eliot
 Christopher Marlowe
 London
 That man is an Einstein  figurative
= That man is similar to Einstein
 the real predicate is similar, and not Einstein
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4. THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN REFERRING EXPRESSIONS
AND PREDICATES IS ABSOLUTE
 There is not a continuum
proper borderline verbs and
names cases prepositions
 Either an expression is used in a given utterance ….. or…..
to refer to it is not
some entity
in the world so used
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5. DEFINITE & INDEFINITE NOUN PHRASES
 There are some phrases, in particular indefinite
noun phrases, that can be used in two
ways, either as
 referring expressions,
 or as predicating expressions,
 depending on the context
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 How are we able to use the same
expressions for different purposes?
 The presence of a predicate in a referring
expression helps the hearer to identify the referent
of a referring expression. 5

6.  Notice that we have just drawn a distinction
between referring and identifying the referent of
a referring expression.
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 To sum up, predicates do not refer. But they can
be used by a hearer when contained in the
meaning of a referring expression, to identify
the referent of that expression.
 He  referring expression  contains  predicate
(male)
 The girl / a girl  referring expression  contain
 predicate (girl) 58 6

7. SUMMARY
 Speakers  refer to things  in the course of utterances 
by means of referring expressions.
 The words in a referring expression  give clues  which
help the hearer  to identify its referent.
 In particular, predicates  may be embedded in referring
expressions  as, for instance, the predicates man, in, and
corner are embedded in the referring expression the man in
the corner.
 The correct referent of such a referring expression  is
something/someone that completely fits, or satisfies, the
description made by the combination of predicates
embedded in it. 7

8. PART 2
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9. GENERIC SENTENCE
Sentence Types 59
Common Sentence Generic Sentence
 contains a subject,  A GENERIC SENTENCE is
which is a referring a sentence
expression,  in which some statement is
 and a predicate made
 (and possibly other  about a whole unrestricted
expressions) class of individuals,
 as opposed to any particular
59 individual.
The whale is a mammal  is a generic sentence. 9
That whale over there is a mammal  is not a generic sentence.

10. LANGUAGE IS USED FOR TALKING ABOUT THINGS
non-existent things / creates
in the real world / exist
unreal worlds
 Like parrots, paper-clips,  Like superheroes, aliens, talking
babies, etc. animals, etc.
 Reference  a  Reference  we use words in a
relationship between part way which suggests that a
relationship exactly like
of an utterance and a
reference holds between a part
thing in the world.
of an utterance & non-existent
things.
60  The classic case is that of the
word unicorn.
 The things we can talk about and the things that exist
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are not exactly the same. T/F

11. SEMANTICS & EXISTENCE
 Semantics is concerned with
- the meanings of words and sentences
- the questions of what exists and what doesn’t.
 We wish to avoid insoluble disagreements between
atheist & theist semanticists e.g. over whether one
could refer to God.
 by adopting a broad interpretation of the notion
referring expression  so that any expression that can
be used to refer to any entity in the real world or in
any imaginary world  will be called a referring
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expression.
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12. Imagination Boundaries in
Semantics
but not to cases where
the principles of the
structure and use of
We only let /allow our language are different.
imagination stretch to
cases where the things
in the world are
different,
To do so would be to
abandon the object of
our study.
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 ‘and’ not a predicate
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13. 61
Expressions
which cannot possibly be
which refer to physical
said to refer to physical
objects
objects
tomorrow - the British
John - my chair -the cat –
national anthem –eleven
Cairo
hundred
Language treats these expressions in a way exactly parallel to
referring expressions  We call them referring expressions
We say that the British national anthem is used to refer to a particular
song, that eleven hundred is used to refer to a particular number, one 13
o’clock to a particular time, 93 million miles to a particular distance, and
so on.

14. UNIVERSE OF DISCOURSE
 Language is used to talk about:
1- the real world
2- an infinite variety of abstractions
3- entities in imaginary, unreal worlds.
 Definition: The UNIVERSE OF DISCOURSE for any
utterance is the particular world, real or imaginary (or
part real, part imaginary), that the speaker assumes
he is talking about at the time.
 Example:
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15. UNIVERSE OF DISCOURSE
 Note that no universe of discourse is a totally fictitious
world.
 Santa Claus is a fiction, but the toy telephones he might
bring do actually exist.
 Interaction between fact and fiction, between real and
imaginary worlds.
 When two people are ‘arguing at cross-purposes’,
 working within partially different universes of
discourse.
 Example: 15
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16. SUCCESSFUL & UNSUCCESSFUL COMMUNICATION
Unsuccessful
Successful Communication
Communication
 Assuming the same  Assuming different universes of
universe of discourse is discourse is one reason for
essential breakdown of communication
 Both participants assuming that
exactly the same entities exist in
the world, but referring to them
by different words (an extreme
case of this would be two
participants speaking different
languages)
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 sheer inarticulacy