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Experimental Pragmatics pp 25–49Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Changing Ideas about Reference

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Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Pragmatics, Language and Cognition ((PSPLC))

Abstract

How do people refer to things? At first, the answer seems simple: they produce the right expression in the right situation. According to John Searle (1969), for example, to refer to a dog, speakers must produce a referring expression (such as the dog she had with her) with the intention that it pick out or identify the dog for their addressees. But is the answer really this simple? Accounts of how people refer have changed again and again since about 1960, often dramatically. But how have they changed, and why? In this chapter, we offer a selective, largely personal history of these changes as they have played out in the experimental study of reference. Our goal is not a complete history — an impossible ambition — but a better understanding of what reference really is.

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Authors
  1. Herbert H. Clark
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  2. Adrian Bangerter
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institut des Sciences Cognitives, France

    Ira A. Noveck

  2. Institut Jean Nicod, France

    Dan Sperber

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© 2004 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited

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Clark, H.H., Bangerter, A. (2004). Changing Ideas about Reference. In: Noveck, I.A., Sperber, D. (eds) Experimental Pragmatics. Palgrave Studies in Pragmatics, Language and Cognition. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230524125_2

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