symbol and referent or between language and the world. The link is via thought or reference, the concept of our mind. When we think of a name we think of the
concept and vice versa, i.e. that meaning consists of our ability of associating one with the other, of remembering that chair refers to the concept „chair‟ that has
referent in our experience.
2. Sense and Reference
Reference deal with the relationship between the linguistic elements, words, sentences, etc. and the non-linguistic world of experience. Sense relates to
the complex system of relationship that holds between the linguistic elements themselves mostly the words, it is concerned only with intra-linguistic
relations.
18
Moreover, James and Heasley 1994 explain the relationship between sense and reference:
On the relationship between sense and reference: the referent of an expression is often a thing or a person in the world, whereas the sense of
an expression is not a thing at all. In fact, it is difficult to say what sort of the entity of the sense of an expression is. It is much easier to say whether
or not two expressions have the sam
e sense. … The sense of expression is an abstraction, but it is helpful to note that it is an abstraction that can be
entertained in the mind of language user.
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To understand what reference and sense are, we will concern the further examples.
It has been explained in the example of reference of chair, that is, the relationship of concept, word, and referent of chair. So is to say that word „chair‟ refers to a
particular thing in the world. Whereas understanding sense, the dictionary can be
18
Ibid., p.30.
19
James R. Hurford and Brendan Heasly, Semantics: A Course Book Cambridge: Cambridge University. 1994 , p.30.
useful to explain it. The dictionary is usually concerned with sense relations, with relating words to words. For instance, when we look up the meaning of a word in
dictionary, we must find an expression or more with the same sense, not referent. Other descriptions make a clear distinction between reference and sense.
Consider the noun phrase, the president of the United States. Its reference at the time of this writing is Barrac
k Obama. Its sense is “head of state of USA.” The sense is more enduring.
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Therefore, a word‟s referent, then, is the particular thing, person place, etc. which an expression stands for on a particular occasion of use,
and it changes each time the word is applied to a different object or situation in the world. B
y contrast, a word‟s sense doesn‟t change every time the word takes on a new referent.
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B. Literal and Non-Literal Meaning
