Referring Expression, Predicate, & Argument

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Point to discuss

• Referring Expression• Predicate Predicator• Argument

Referring Expression

• Is any expression used in an utterance to refer to something of someone (or a clearly delimited collection of things or people) used with particular referent in mind (Hurford, 2007, p.37)

• Example: Fred• Fred hit me (referring expression)• There’s no Fred at this address (no referring

expression)

Practices

1. My table 2. A unicorn3. No love4. Travel5. Or6. MaryAnswers: 1 (yes) 2 (yes) 3 (no) 4 (no) 5 (no) 6 (yes)

1. His father married a dancer

2. John wants to marry a dancer

3. I am looking for a pencil

These examples (2) & (3) are ambiguous. It can be resolved by the use of the word ‘certain’. Certain Dancer or Certain Pencil.

Opaque Context

• An Opaque Context is a part of a sentence which could be made into a complete sentence by the addition of a referring expression, but where the addition of different referring expressions, even though they refer to the same thing or person, in a given situation, will yield sentences with DIFFERENT meanings when uttered in a given situation. (Heasley, 2007, p: 40)

Practices1. John is standing alone in the corner. Do ‘John’ and ‘the

person in the corner’ have the same referent?2. Dick believes that John killed Smith

Dick believes that the person in the corner killed Smith. Could one of these utterances be true and false?

3. Laura Bush thinks that the President is a genius Laura Bush thinks Leader of Republican Party is a genius do these two sentences mean different things?

Answers: 1 (Yes) 2 (Yes) 3 (Yes). These are kind of “opaque context” with the contexts which seem to block our view. It’s typically involve a certain kind verb, such as want, believe, think.

Equative Sentence

• One which is used to assert the identity of the referents of two referring expressions, i.e. to assert that two referring expressions have the same referent. (Smith, 2007, p: 42)

• Example:Tony Blair is the Prime Minister (Yes)The Prime Minister is Tony Blair (No)

Practice

1. Fred is the man with the gun2. William the Conquer is the current King of England3. Destroit is a nearby city4. Mary is a genius5. Dr Jekyll is Mr Hyde6. Ted is an idiot

Answers: 1 (Yes) 2 (Yes) 3 (No) 4 (No) 5 (Yes) 6 (No)

Predicator

The predicator of a simple declarative sentence is the word (sometimes a group of words) which does not belong to any of the referring expressions and which, of the remainder, makes the most specific contribution to the meaning of sentence. (Hurford, 2007, p: 47)1. Mummy is asleep2. The white man loved the Indian maiden3. Jimmy was waiting for the downtown busPredicator is asleep, love, wait for.

Practice

1. I am hungry2. John loves Mary3. Ed is a fool4. The man who lives at number 10 Lee Crescent is

whimsicalAnswers: 1 (hungry) 2 (in) 3 (a fool) 4 (whimsical)The predicators can be verb, adjective, noun, preposition.

Predicate

• Is any word (or sequence of words) which (in a given single sense) can function as the predicator of a sentence . (Heasly, 2007, p:48)

• Example: hungry, in, crook, asleep, hit, show, bottle are predicateand, or, but, you, Fred are not predicate

Predicate

There is also Degree of predicate. It is a number indicating the number of arguments and is normally understood to have in simple sentences. (Smith, 2007, p: 50)Example‘Asleep’ in a sentence ‘the baby is asleep’‘Hit’ in a sentence ‘Martha hit the parrot’

Argument

• It is an individual independent entity, the role is played by the referring expression. (Hurford, 2007, p:48)

1. Juan is IndonesianPredicator: IndonesianArgument: Juan2. Donald is proud of his familyPredicator: proudArgument: Donald, his family

Practice

1. Tom punched Bob2. John gave Mary a ring3. Jane is Mary’s Mother4. Jones is the dean of

the college 5. Mary loves John 6. John stood near the

bank

• The answers1. Pred: punched, Arg: Tom,

Bob2. Pred: gave, Arg: John,

Mary, a ring3. Pred: is, Arg: Jane, Mary’s

Mother4. Pred: is, Arg: Jones, the

dean, the college5. Pred: love, Arg: Mary, John 6. Pred: stood, near, Arg:

John, the bank

Reference

Hurford, James. R., Heasley, Brendan., Smith Michael. B. (2007).

Semantic A Course Book, Cambridge University Press.

THANK YOU

For Your Attention