Reference and Inference in English Pragmatics

Reference and Inference in English Pragmatics

1. Reference

   • Reference is defined as a thing that speaker says or writes that mentions something or somebody else
   • Yule (1997) defined it as an action in which communicator utilizes a linguistic forms in order to direct listeners into identification of something.
   • The concept of referring something doesn’t always match with the physical image or entity. The certainty of existence also matters when someone referring, since the act of referring also being directed towards something none exist

2. Interference

   • One essential fact of inference is that it transfers the original meaning or information, directing into something which explicitly unstated (Chan & McDermott, 2006).
   • If reference is done by and depends on speakers’ goal, inference is listeners’ task to discover the relationship between expressed entities with the words (Yule, 1997). I

3. In the scope of reference and inference, several aspects are identified, those are::

   • Referential and attributive use
     • The concept of referring something doesn’t always match with the physical image or entity. The certainty of existence also matters when someone referring, since the act of referring also being directed towards something none exist
       • The words [a], [an] and [the] are called attributive use since it can be replaced with whoever or whatever description to describe unknown entity.
       • Meanwhile, the phrase beautiful girl, icy white cotton falling from the sky and Surabaya’s green force are called referential use
   • Significance of co-text
     • Co-text is a linguistic material helping us to depict what the reference is actually referring to. It is almost impossible to interpret what is actually expressed by speaker by ignoring the co-text.
       • Thus, every single unit of co-text is so much significant to discover the meaning when certain expression is placed in the same position inside the sentence.
   • Name and referent
     • In referring to something, people can also use name. And based on the collaborative understanding among all member of society (not only speaker and listener) the act of referring something gains its success.
       • The cooperative use of proper name to refer something else is influenced with the common collaborative knowledge between the speaker and listener.
   • Anaphoric reference
     • During the communication, complex sentences are used to provide enough elaboration as needed by the speaker.
       • Example:
         • [Zuhri and Didi] is a reference. And throughout the story, this reference must be pointed back again and again using words [they] and [them]. The initial reference is called as Antecedent, and the next link-backing references are called as Anaphoric reference. There is also different pattern of sentence when the anaphoric reference comes first, and the initial reference comes later. This pattern is technically known as Cataphora

4. Reference and Interference

   • Reference and inference is a concept on how meanings are expressed by speaker through linguistic expressions and later being inferred (interpreted) by the listeners.
   • The expressions used to deliver the meaning are not always explicitly state the thing which been referred, a meaning behind the meaning.
   • These meanings are influenced significantly by the collaborative understanding between speaker and listener, and all member of society.

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