In discussing deixis, we assumed that the use of words to refer to people, places and times was a simple matter. However, words themselves don’t refer to anything. People refer. We have to define reference as an act by which a speaker (or writer) uses language to enable a listener (or reader) to identify something. To perform an act of reference, we can use proper nouns (Chomsky, Jennifer, Whiskas), other nouns in phrases (a writer, my friend, the cat) or pronouns (he, she, it). We sometimes assume that these words identify someone or something uniquely, but it is more accurate to say that, for each word or phrase, there is a “range of reference.” The words Jennifer or friend or she can be used to refer to many entities in the world. As we observed earlier, an expression such as the war doesn’t directly identify anything by itself, because its reference depends on who is using it.

We can also refer to things when we’re not sure what to call them. We can use expressions such as the blue thing and that icky stuff and we can even invent names. For instance, there was a man who always drove his motorcycle fast and loud through my neighborhood and was locally referred to as Mr. Kawasaki. In this case, a brand name for a motorcycle is being used to refer to a person.