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For example, it would not be strange for 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 the table.

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 more clearly how reference actually
works. The Shakespeare example in [4] suggests that there is a conventional (and potentially
culture-specific) set of entities that can be identifed by the use of a 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, within a socio-culturally 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 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.] were 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.

The role of co-text