Linguistics Assignment: Sense, Reference, and Meaning Explained

This essay delves into the core concepts of sense and reference within the field of linguistics, focusing on their crucial roles in understanding meaning. It begins by defining semantics and highlighting the significance of sense and reference in interpreting words, phrases, and expressions. The essay differentiates between sense, which relates to the intra-linguistic relations and connotations, and reference, which connects linguistic elements to the real world. It explores how sense can provide meaning even in the absence of a direct referent, and how reference can be influenced by tone and context. The essay also discusses the contributions of various theorists like Frege and Dummett to the understanding of sense and reference. Overall, the essay provides a detailed analysis of how sense and reference shape language philosophy and contribute to creating definite expressions in language, particularly in fiction and other forms of communication. The essay concludes by emphasizing the importance of these concepts in creating clear and unambiguous expressions of language.

Linguistics
What are sense and reference and why are they important in the understanding of meaning?

Introduction
In language, semantics focuses on the study of meaning. It is common to come across words with
the same meaning. For example, ‘Morning Star’ may refer to a known scientific object in the
universe. It may also imply a shining star that appears in the morning. When defining or
understanding meaning, different ideas come to mind. This depends on the words or phrases used
in its description (Basak & Das, 2013, p. 78). Semantic properties define a word, sentence or
object. When denoting the meaning of something, reference is made concerning it. A description
made in the sense of another reference could be its basic meaning, abstract or constant intension.
On the other hand, sense refers to the intra-linguistic relations in elements such as words
describing an object, or punctuations (Searle, 1958). For example, ‘a shooting star refers’ to the
movement of a shiny object that looks like a star falling from the sky. In this case, sense brings
out meaning according to how people see an object. Sometimes a meaning could have two
senses. A ‘shooting star’ could also have a literal meaning of a star that shoots. A Stalin was a
political leader in Russia; he also led an army, had a family and led revolutions. In this case,
Stalin is a noun referring to all these senses.
Sense verses Reference
Sense is the intended reference in a context (Dummett, 1981). Names may make sense in
different ways depending on the reference factor. This explains why a mother may also be an
aunt, a sister and a grandmother to different references. The difference between sense and
reference lies in the translations. Some words or terms in one language may have a different
meaning in English. Sometimes a meaning may cover just a small part of an impression. A
reference has common recognition and the public is familiar with it. This means that it is easily

recognizable by most people and not just one person. In this case, it does not require any
association with an individual’s perception.
A sense points at a certain reference, an association that provides a clear description of
something with a clarity that convinces and gives the listener a good idea of what it is. Sense
does not have an obvious object of reference (Frege, 1892). Some words may have sense but lack
referents. An example of these includes a flying horse, which may not have an existing reference
to it. This allows the listener to go through a wild imagination of something strange, which may
not be in existence. When deriving meaning through sense, people make reference of something
that is real even though it may not be so. Its existence in the mind gives it some sort of literal
meaning. It is possible to refer to a dinosaur as real because of the existing scientific theories and
museum skeletons of gigantic animals that were once living in real life.
Creation of meaning through sense takes a process of imagining as well as creating or inventing.
This is not the case with references because they are public and do not depend on people.
Definitions may describe sense or create a reference point. However, reference allows the thinker
to explore an existing object. This allows the person to visualize using and ideal point. Unlike
reference, sense does not have an assurance of a conceivable idea. However, it provides a guide
or an idea that juggles people’s mind. This explains why ‘a truck’ and ‘a lorry’ will represent the
same thing depending on the English translation.
Reference and Linguistics
Reference in Linguistics represents a connection between a linguistic element such as a word,
sentence or expression and the real world or non-linguistic element (Muskens, 2005). A
reference may be perceptual or visible as an object. In this case, some objects may be imaginary

and non-existent. Fairy tales comprised of such imaginary items such as elves, dinosaurs, Pluto
as a name of a dog, Orbit as a scientific name given to the heavenly bodies. Reference in
semantics connects nouns, pronouns with objects named by them. In this case, a hospital refers to
a medical center. Mary represents a person called Mary. Pronouns such as ‘they’ refers to
previously mentioned items.
In grammar, statements could be the same but have different meanings (McLeod, 2016). For
example, ‘learners go to school to gain knowledge’ has the same meaning as ‘learning takes
place in schools’. The sentence makes reference of a school as a center of education but uses
different references (learning and gaining knowledge). Reference receives support from sense
and tone. For example ‘I need to run’ is the same as ‘I need to run!’ yet different because of the
tone. While one represents a subtle verb, the other implies taking a quick action. Language
comprise of opinion from different people and their meaning. Reference adopts different
meanings based on slight variations in tone and fluctuations in elements (Katatko & Biro, 2012).
Two people can make a statement to convey different meanings depending on the opinions that
they have. For example, “Mary prefers to be a backbencher’ while another states that ‘Mary
would rather sit at the back’. The first sentence uses two nouns ‘backbencher’ and ‘Mary’. On
the other, hand the second sentence uses ‘Mary’ and ‘the back’.
Reference clarifies the relationship between a pronoun and its other representation. For example,
a priest is a noun that refers to a monk as well. A sentence stating that ‘The priest went to the
convent’ is the same as ‘He went to the convent’ or ‘the monk went to the convent’. Reference
avoids ambiguity but this is inevitable because some sentences may create confusion. For
example, “Joseph never deletes his brother’s messages when he is around”. The pronoun ‘he’
could represent ‘Joseph’ or ‘his brother’. Although reference and denotation sound the same,

they are different because reference gives a specific meaning within a context. On the other
hand, denotation refers to that concept or idea that people have of an object as seen in reality. For
example, my daughter Mary milked the cows implies that the reference is Mary while daughter is
the concept that people use to denote the idea of who did what.
Sense in Semantics
Some theorists like Dummett point out that Sense and Reference are similar because they
provide meaning (Dummett, 1981, p. 421). However, sense is more concrete in meaning because
it refers to an object in its referent. Sense comes from a world of possibilities, which goes
beyond the human mind. Sense has limitations and may differ from one translation to another.
For example, ‘chips’ may refer to “French Fries’ in some regions while some consider this as
potatoes crisps. Unlike reference, which is nonlinguistic, sense is part of the linguistic. The
statement, ‘My wife is nice’ may mean a number of things depending on the description of
‘nice’. For some people, this could imply politeness, good character, friendliness and to some it
means beautiful. This means giving a reference of nice. The same is not possible for sense
because it captures the unknown, which could be a process (Breal, 1900). A word such as play
may imply a childish game, or a verb. Sense in linguistics narrows down an explanation to a
probable one. Finding the correct meaning of a word through sense depends on its symbol or
representation. Sense finds reference from its own point of view giving a function of truth-values
(Pearce-Pleydell, 1967).
Conclusion
Semantics is a study of meaning in language. Sense and reference are critical in understanding of
meaning because these give denotation and explanations through words, phrases and symbols.
These bring out different ideas, description of objects and elements of written language. It

includes tone and punctuation, which form the content of a word. Although the two sound
similar, they are very different. Reference connects linguistic expressions to the world of reality.
Consequently, sense relates to other language systems, intensions as well as connotations. Sense
and reference identify, associate and define properties. They shape the language philosophy
giving an understanding of different perspectives. Sense is evident in works of fiction because it
shapes the imagination. Frege explains that sense has great importance in meaning while
Dummett looks at the relevance of partial meaning as meaningful in determining the value of a
sentence. Despite conflicting and supporting theories on meaning in language, sense and
reference unveil the concepts as critical parts in creating definite expressions of language.

References
Basak, C. J. & Das, L. K., 2013. Language and Reality. s.l.:Northern Book.
Breal, M., 1900. Semantics: Studies in Science of Meaning. s.l.:W. Heinemann.
Dummett, M., 1981. Frege: Philosophy of Language. Second ed. s.l.:Harvard University Press.
Frege, G., 1892. Uber Sinn und Bedeutung. s.l.:s.n.
Katatko, P. & Biro, J., 2012. Frege: Sense and Reference One Hundred Years Later.
s.l.:Springer.
McLeod, S. K., 2016. Dummet and Frege on Sense and Selbstandigkeit. British Journal for the
Hitsory of Philosophy, 25(2), pp. 309-331.
Muskens, R., 2005. Sense and the Computation of Reference. Linguistics and Philosophy, 28(4),
pp. 473-504.
Pearce-Pleydell, A. G., 1967. Sense, Reference and Fiction. British Journal of Aesthetics, 7(3),
pp. 225-236.
Searle, J. R., 1958. Russell's Objections to Frege's Theory of Sense and Reference. Analysis ,
6(1), pp. 137-143.