Journal Denotation and reference

September 20^th, 2013

Denotation and reference

This class was explained by two partners’ presentation about the topic Denotation and reference, although they explained well, I did not understand at all, until the teacher explained again. To practice about this topic in pairs we had to do some exercises.

The activity was identifying referents and the noun phrases to which they refer in the text, for example, in the first paragraph about Sharks, the referent was: Sea animal, and the referring expression was: Is one of the most feared fish in the ocean having the reputation of attacking humans. The other topic was the solar system, in which the referents were the starts, the planets, and the feasibility of sustainable life.

I learnt about the direct reference theory, which is a description theory, we do not need the name when we are talking about someone or something; we only use a description to refer to any person. There are two main concepts: Referent: that person or subject I am referring, and referring expressions: there are pronouns, deictic, and some characteristics or descriptions that help us to identify the referent we intent to convey. 

Also is important the Referential, when you have something in mind, whoever with some characteristics and the Referental use is when we already have a name or referent. Inferring is connecting previous knowlegde to go beyond; the speaker say information that listener interprets.

These practice excercises are meaningful to keep in mind the topics we had seen in class, i think that were good and simple examples that helped me to understant it in a better way.