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person, and an expression containing a common noun, such as ‘the cheesesandwich’,
can only be used to identify a specific thing. This belief is mistaken.A truly pragmatic
view of reference alliws us to see how a person can be identified via the expression,
‘the chees sandwich’, and a thing can be identified via the name, ‘Shakespeare’.
For example, it would not be strange fir one student to ask another the question
in [4a.] and receive the reply in[4b.].
[4] a. Can I borrow your Shakespeare?
b. Yeah, it’s over there on thetable.
Given the context just created, the intended referent and the inferred referent
would not be a person, but probably a book (notice the pronoun ‘it’).
In a restaurant, one waiter brings out an order of food for another waiter and asks
him[5a.] and hears[5b.] in reply.
[5] a.Where’s the cheese sandwich sitting?
b. He’s over there by the window.
Given the context, the referent being identified is not a thing, but a person(notice
the pronoun ‘he’).
The examples in[4] and[5] may allow us to see mire clearly how reference actually
works. The Shakespeare example in[4] suggests that there is a conventional(and
potentially culturespecific) set of entities that can be identified by the use of writer’s
name.Let us call them ‘things the writer produced’.This would allow us to make sense
of the sentences in[6].
[6] a. Shakespeare takes up the whole bottom shelf.
b. We’re going to see Shakespeare in London.
c. I hated Shakespeare at school.
Obviously, this convention does not only apply to writers, but also to artists[7a.],
composers[7b.],musicians[7c.], and many other producers of objects.
[7] a. Picasso’s on the far wall.
b. The new Mozart is better value than the Bach.
c. My Rolling Stones is missing.
There appears to be a pragmatic connection between proper names and
objects that will be conventionally associated, whithin a socioculturally defined
community, with those names.Using a proper name referentially to identify any such
object invites the listener to make the expected inference(for example, from name of
writer to book by writer) and thereby show himself or herself to be a member of the
same community as the speaker.In such cases, it is rather obvious that more is being
communicated than is said.
The nature of reference interpretation just described is also what allows readers
to make sense of newspaper headlines using names of countries, as exemplified in
[8a.] where the referent is to be understood as a soccer team, not as a government,
and in[8b.] where it is to be understood as a government, not as a soccer team.

[8] a. Brazil wins World Cup.
b. Japan wins first round of trade talks.

how a person can be identified via the expression, 'the cheese sandwich', and a thing can be
identified via the name, 'Shakespeare'.