The definite reference

The definite reference ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In order to have a really scientific research, I need much help from many people Their contributions to this thesis are very great and meaningful The person being most important to me is my supervisor - Ms Nguyen Thi Tuong She helped and guided me enthusiastically Her advice and aids encouraged me much and I am really grateful to her I would also like to express special thanks to my dear relatives, my other teachers of the Foreign Languages Department and my good friends All of their help and concern enabled me to complete my thesis well To everyone, thank you so much Vinh, May 2003 Bui Thi Thanh Mai Contents Page Part I : Introduction I Reasons for choosing the study II Aims of the study III Scope of the study Bùi Thị Thanh Mai - 40A1 English The definite reference IV Methods of the study V Design of the study Part II : Investigation Chapter I : The theoretical preliminaries I Background information Discourse Analysis The origin of Discourse Analysis The relationship between Discourse and Pragmatics II Types of Discourse Spoken discourse Written discourse Chapter II : An overview of reference I Reference Definition and its theory Types of reference 12 II The detail of definite reference 15 What is the definite reference 15 Subtypes of the definite reference 15 Chapter III : Some other reference patterns 28 I Common expressions of reference 28 Sentence clause reference 28 Pronoun reference 30 Noun reference 32 The definite article 39 II Other forms of reference 40 Comparative 40 Written convention 41 Bùi Thị Thanh Mai - 40A1 English The definite reference The relation between substitution and reference III Different referring words and phrases 42 43 "This/that" and "it" 43 Time and place reference 48 Problem - solution words 49 "The same" or "different" 51 Special referring expressions 54 Part III Conclusion 62 Conclusion and references 63 PART I : INTRODUCTION I REASONS FOR CHOOSING THE SUBJECT Nowadays, English is considered to be the international language Being a diverse and popular language, it is not easy for everyone to use it correctly in daily life They often get trapped in when meeting phenomena of language as cohesion and they make confusions of the text as a result Bùi Thị Thanh Mai - 40A1 English The definite reference One of the basic language phenomena is reference References are words whose meaning can only be discovered by referring to other words or to elements of the context which are clear to both sender and receiver Sometimes the reader and listener could not find any relations to words - referrers - which are being mentioned at the moment of the conversation or of the text They not know where these words come from, what they mean and their relation to the text Example : "The young man's name was Bill He had short brown hair and a happy smile His wife, Sulie, had long red hair and very green eyes - the color of sea water They were very beautiful eyes" (The Girl with Green Eyes - One Way Ticket - Sennifer Bassett: 3) Here "he" refers to the young man and Bill, "Sulie" refers to Bill's wife Moreover, when the readers neither understand nor know the cohensive tie as reference, they could not take in the meaning of the text There are various types of reference, therefore sometimes they get confused of them and they may be wondering which referent referer points to as the following example: "There was a pineapple on the table So I ate it" Here we would assume the speaker had eaten the pineapple, not the table (even though the word "table" is nearer) So, during the process of learning English, we will meet various types of English reference and the most common one is the definite reference which brings both interests and difficulties to the learners When studying, the learners need to be knowledgeable to find the cohensive tie as reference If not, they will not be able to understand the meaning of the sentence consisting of reference Bùi Thị Thanh Mai - 40A1 English The definite reference Being aware of the importance of the definite reference in communicative language teaching and learning as well as practical needs of Vietnamese learners, this study has been conducted in order to find out sharp knowledge about reference to help the teachers, learners use English reference effectively II AIMS OF THE STUDY The first aim of this study is to introduce to every one and describe the three main types of reference (anaphora, catophora and exophora) so through this knowledge, the learners can establish the distinctions between them and apply them flexibly to different contexts The second aim of this study is not only to give out the details of reference but also to help learners to know more some language phenomena like reference And we just want to help the learners to see the differences between reference and substitution so they will not get confused when meeting them Besides, our inspiration is to present some common referring words to every one so that sometimes the speaker or writer does not need to repeat the same words by using them unstably Finally, through this study, we are just dying for widing knowledge of English cohensive tie as reference to help learners avoid making confusions when using them III SCOPE OF THE STUDY The overview of reference The usage of the definite reference Some other referring patterns IV METHOD OF THE STUDY Descriptive method Analytic method Comparative method Bùi Thị Thanh Mai - 40A1 English The definite reference V DESIGN OF THE STUDY Part I : Introduction Part II : Contents Chapter I : The theoretical preliminaries Chapter II : An overview of reference Chapter III : Some other reference patterns Part III Conclusion Bùi Thị Thanh Mai - 40A1 English The definite reference PART II : INVESTIGATION Chapter I : Theoretical preliminaries I BACKGROUND INFORMATION Discourse Analysis Language has been used to communicate something and is felt to be coherent (and may or may not happen to correspond to a correct sentence or a series of correct sentences) Language in use for communication is called "Discourse" and the search for what gives discourse coherence is Discourse Analysis Discourse analysis examines how stretches of language considered in their full textual, social and psychological context, become meaningful and unified for their users It is a rapidly expanding field, providing insights into the problems and processes of language use and language learning The origin of discourse analysis It was a sentence linguist who both coined the term "discourse" and initiated a search for language rules which explain how sentences were concerned within a text by a kind of extended grammar This was Zelling Harris In 1952, in an article entitled "Discourse Analysis", he analyzed an advertisement for hair - tonic - from which he omitted the branch name - and set about searching for grammatical rules to explain why one sentence followed another At the beginning of the article, he observed that there were two possible directions for discourse analysis One was "continuing descriptive linguistics beyond the limits of a single sentence at a time" (Harris 1964: 356) The other was "correlating culture and language" (ie : non - linguistic and linguistic behavior) The relationship between Discourse and Pragmatics Bùi Thị Thanh Mai - 40A1 English The definite reference The relationship between discourse and pragmatics provides us with a means of relating stretches of language to the physical, social and psychological world in which they take place Discourse, indeed might be defined as the totality of all these elements interacting Discourse is more likely a moving film, revealing itself in time sometimes over long periods That relation is illustrated clearly by the following diagrams Pragmatic analysis time the world (social and physical) language Discourse thought (knowledge and reasoning) - pronunciation language system - grammar - vocabulary - voice User paralanguage - face Goal - body - cultural knowledge - world reasoning II TYPES OF DISCOURSE Spoken - Written discourses Traditionally, language teaching has divided discourse into two major categories, the spoken and the written, further divided into the four skills of speaking, writing, reading and listening Spoken discourse is often considered Bùi Thị Thanh Mai - 40A1 English The definite reference to be less planned and orderly, more open to interventions by the receiver The possibilities for subordinate participants can be severely limited It is clear that in reading a novel, one can not influence its development (that can be the pleasure, or pain of reading) but it is almost equally hard for a criminal to influence the direction of a trial, or for a primary school pupil to prevent the lesson progressing as the teacher intends Conversely, there are times when readers have rights to affect written discourse Writers respond to the market Teachers send essays back to be rewritten Formal and informal discourse The traditional division of language into the spoken and the written is clearly and sensibly based on a difference in production and reception : we use our mouths and ears for one, and our hands or eyes for the other As far as the discourse structure is concerned, a more fundamental distinction seems to be between formal, planned discourse, which may be either written or spoken and less formal, unplanned one which-though it may also be either written or spoken-is usually associated with speech Informal spoken discourse is something in which the modern foreign language learner, with opportunities for travel and social contact, is most likely to wish to succeed, but also the discourse type he or she is likely to find hardest, precisely because it is informal and unpredictable Bùi Thị Thanh Mai - 40A1 English The definite reference Chapter II : An overview of reference I REFERENCE Definition and its theories 1.1 What is reference ? References are words whose meaning can only be discovered by referring to other words or to elements of the context which are clear to both sender and receiver In case of reference, we can also distinguish speaker's reference from linguistic reference and terminology varies here Often the word "refer" is reversed for what speakers and the term "denote" or "semantic reference" are used for what words or phrases Under this terminology, the object (objects) referred to by a person is called referent and the object (objects) semantically referred to by a word or phrase is called the denotation of that word or phrase Speaker's reference involves what the speaker is referring to in uttering an expression and what the speaker's reference may coincide what the speaker's words denote For instance, this happens when one refers to George Washington by using the phrase "the first president" However, it can happen that what speaker is referring to is not the same as the semantic reference or denotation of the words used It is important to emphasize that denotations are things and events in the world (or groups of them) What words or phrases denote are things and events that the words correctly describe For example : Bùi Thị Thanh Mai - 40A1 English 10 The definite reference somewhere else Here are some examples What the word in bold refers to is underlined : "Pollution is increasing The problem is getting worse" (English Vocabulary in Use - Michael Mc Cathy, Felicity, O' Dell: 50) "Should taxes be raised or lowered ? " This was the biggest issue in the election" (English Vocabulary in Use - Michael Mc Cathy, Felicity, O' Dell: 50) It is topic causing great argument and controversy Text referring words are often associated with common patterns in text such as the "problem - solution" type of text Note the words in bold connected with problems and solutions here "The situation in our cities with regard to traffic is going from bad to worse Congestion is a daily feature of urban life The problem is now beginning to affect our national economies Unless a new approach is found to controlling the numbers of cars, we will never find a solution to the dilemma" (English Vocabulary in Use - Michael Mc Cathy, Felicity, O' Dell: 51) In the following dialogue, two politicians are arguing on the radio and the words in bold refer to parts of the argument "A: You claim that we are doing nothing to invest in industry is false We invested 10 billion last year You have ignored this fact B: But the investment has all gone to service industries The real point is that we need to invest in manufacturing A: That argument is out of date in a modern technological society Our position has always been that we should encourage technology Bùi Thị Thanh Mai - 40A1 English 52 The definite reference B: But that view will not help to reduce unemployment A: Rubbish Utter rubbish" (English Vocabulary in Use - Michael Mc Cathy, Felicity, O' Dell: 151) Here are some more words associated with "problem - solution" texts They are grouped in families associated with key - words in bold The prepositions which are normally used with these words are given in brackets : Situation: State of affairs Position (With regard to) Problem: difficulty (more formal), crisis, matter Response: reaction (to), attitude (to) Solution: answer (to), resolution (to), key (to), way out (of) Evaluation (of the solution): assessment, judgement "The same" or "different" 4.1 "The same", "the opposite", "the reverse" "Same", "opposite" and "reverse" are adjectives which are not existing in comparison but their meaning always has comparison of this thing with the other one We can use " the same", "the opposite" and the rarely used words "the reverse" to refer back to also expend these phrases/ items by use of nouns in addition "Their questions were clear and concise The same could not be said for the answers" (i.e the answers were not clear and concise) (Linking Words - Collins Cobuild: 144) "The same" means the characteristics of "clear" and "concise" of answers must be equivalent to the questions "The interview had not reassured Tweed Rather the reverse" (i.e it had worried him) (Linking Words - Collins Cobuild: 145) Bùi Thị Thanh Mai - 40A1 English 53 The definite reference 4.2 " Likewise" and "otherwise" "Like wise" and "Otherwise" are always considered to be backward pointing references, they can follow verbs "Do likewise" is the other form of "do the same" or "act in the same way" "The boy and his mother emerged from the next - door house, got into their respective cars, and drove away As soon as they were out of sight, Bernard did likewise" (i.e got into his car) (Linking Words - Collins Cobuild: 145) Even though the phrase "did likewise" does not tell us directly its meaning, we still understand it through reading the whole example Therefore we know "did likewise" means Bernard got into his car too "Otherwise" is used regularly after the verb "do" and after general ones such as: "decide", "know", "pretend", "prove", and "suggest" "He was hurt and it was no use pretending otherwise" (i.e pretend not to be hurt) (Linking Words - Collins Cobuild: 145) " Do you think she really is what she says ?" - "I think she is sure that there is nothing we can to prove otherwise" (Linking Words - Collins Cobuild: 145) It is difficult for us to understand "prove otherwise" in isolation We need to read the whole example and take in that it refers to the case that she is not what she says 4.3 "Identical", "similar" , " different" "Identical", "similar" , " different" are adjectives comparing with at least two people or things They are common comparison and this comparison can point forwards or backwards to find the referent When it points forwards, each adjective links comparison with prepositions or specific preposition Some adverbs like "identically", "similarly", "differently" are used in the same way Bùi Thị Thanh Mai - 40A1 English 54 The definite reference If we want to express something that is the same to other, we express this identically or similarly to the other one "I joined a group of women dressed in turquoise sweatsuits identical to mine" (Linking Words - Collins Cobuild: 146) Things or people that are not completely identical can be expressed to be similar to each other " These theories of brain function sound less compelling when you learn that in the 19th century a similar argument raged about the function of the lobes of the brain" (Linking Words - Collins Cobuild: 145) To the above example, we need to notice that " argument" is being used as a near synonym of "theory" In contrast, we can express things or people differently from each other because of the different characteristics of this one to the other's "London was different from most European capitals" (Linking Words - Collins Cobuild: 147) "differently" sometimes functions similarly as objects of verbs with the same meaning as "the opposite" or "otherwise" " Until now I thought that this sort of accident was the owner's fault but now I know differently" (Linking Words - Collins Cobuild: 148) 4.4 "Equal" and "additional" Both "equal" and "additional" can look backwards to find referents If we want to express something equivalent to others we understand that it has the same size or value or it has the same characteristic at a similar level to others Bùi Thị Thanh Mai - 40A1 English 55 The definite reference "Each Christmas Anthony sent him carefully chosen and expensive presents He received letters of gratitude composed with equal care" (Linking Words - Collins Cobuild : 148) (i.e with as much care as the care taken in choosing the presents) "Nicky was already nursing a grudge against her because of what happened this morning She did not want to give him any additional cause for grievance" (the first cause was ' what happened this morning') (Linking Words - Collins Cobuild: 148) Special referring expressions 5.1 "The former" and "the latter" When we look backwards to two things or people and compare them at the same level, we can refer to what has been mentioned before with "the former" and to what has been mentioned after with "the latter" They are formal phrases but they often appear in speech and writing Nouns can follow them "The two terms text analysis and discourse leave some times been confused Some have suggested that the former refers to the European traditions and the latter to Anglo - American traditions for doing the same thing" (Contrastive Analysis - Carl James: 102) Here "the former" refers to "text analysis" and "the latter" to "discourse analysis" "Former" and "latter" (both mainly formal written English) are used an anaphorically to single out one of two previous noun phrases : "Bob and John were at the meeting The former brought his wife with him" (A University Grammar of English - Randolph Quick Green Baum : 304) Bùi Thị Thanh Mai - 40A1 English 56 The definite reference Who is "the former" ? We can answer easily it is Bob If the "latter" were used instead, the reference would be John Similarly, when there are more than two previous noun phrases that might be referred to, the ordinals "first", "second" and "last" can be used anaphorically to single out one of several phrases The ordinals and "former" and "latter" can also refer back to clausal units as well as noun phrases 5.2 "Sort", "type" and "kind" We often use "this sort / kind / type" and "that sort / kind / type" to tell that this one is similar or different from that one which is already mentioned, connects nouns with the preposition "of" before or after Therefore, "that kind of book" is similar to "a book of that kind" "I have played a lot of glamorous women who have broken men's hearts, so people tend to see me as that sort of person" (Linking Words - Collins Cobuild: 139) "That sort of person" acquires to be looked backwards to find its meaning, and we understand that it means the kind of person who is glamorous, breaks men's hearts "We ended up teaching mainly foreigners, teachers, journalists and people of that kind" (Linking Words - Collins Cobuild: 140) "People of that kind" refers to the people who have relationship with foreigners, teachers, or journalists are synonyms for them The phrases such as "that kind of thing", "this type of thing" are often used "Thing" often carries the meaning of action, event than any objects else "What sort of bother ?" - "Well, running off without paying and that type of thing" (ie Something like that) (Linking Words Collins Cobuild: 141) Bùi Thị Thanh Mai - 40A1 English 57 The definite reference Especially in spoken language, we can find out one thing that "these" and "those" precede "sort of", "kind of" and "type of" followed by plural nouns even though "sort", "kind" and "type" are singular - "I was asking her what it was like, you know, I mean, what was your weather like and all these sort of boring questions" (Linking Words - Collins Cobuild: 141) 5.3 "So", "such" and "not" 5.3.1 "So" and "not" "So" and "not" need to be looked backwards to find and substitute clauses, especially after statement verbs and idioms such as "I am afraid", "it appears", and "it seems" "Actually, when you see somebody die gradually they go so thin, you know" - "Yeah, I believe so" (Linking Words - Collins Cobuild: 131) "So" points to the meaning that people who are going to die are very thin, it is a fact "But you will be taken prisoner, won't you ?" - "I hope not" (Linking Words - Collins Cobuild: 131) "Not" means that I will not be taken prisoner in the future It points us the negative meaning, it is the reverse of the previous statement This idea is clearly illustrated in the following example "Were there any survivors ?" - "No, sir, I am afraid not" (Linking Words - Collins Cobuild: 131) From the word "not" we understand that it is so sad when there were no survivors, no one is still alive "So" and "not" substitute clauses with idiomatical ones like "if so", "if not", "even so" We use them to avoid repeating or to negate the previous clause Bùi Thị Thanh Mai - 40A1 English 58 The definite reference "Ask her if it is a convenient time If not, can she suggest another possible time?" In this example, both speaker and listener know what time was mentioned so it is not necessary to repeat it and they just ask whether it is convenient And "not" means the case when the time is not convenient "So" and especially "not" are used to substitute clauses after "perhaps", "probably", "may be", and "possibly", "I am sure he would tell you were you to ask him'-'Perhaps so, but I not wish to risk a snub" (Linking Words - Collins Cobuild: 132) "So" means the presupposition of the previous sentence may be right, so it has an agreement with the idea that "he would tell you were you to ask him" "I don't know any secrets" _ "Possibly not But it is more probable that you know some but haven't recognized their value " (Linking Words - Collins Cobuild: 132) "Not" negates the previous statement and affirms one thing that "I know some secrets" "So" which is considered to be substitution used to emphasize always occurs at the beginning of the sentence or clause This only happens to statement verbs as clarative verbs " Every thing about him was well documented" - "So I believe" (Linking Words - Collins Cobuild: 132) This kind of clause expresses something doubtful to the theoretical characteristic of the earlier clause "So" and "that" (rather formally) can have anaphoric reference when they are intensifiers premodifying an adjective: "There are two thousand people in the theatre I didn't expect it to be so (all) that full?" (A University Grammar of English - R.Quirk, S.Green Barm: 162) Bùi Thị Thanh Mai - 40A1 English 59 The definite reference In some structures, we use "so" to avoid repeating an adjective or adverb For example: " I read the front page very carefully, and the rest of the paper less so" ("so" points to the adverb "carefully") (A University Grammar of English - R.Quirk, S.Green Barm: 538) "So" has a more important profunction, namely, to replace along with the "pro - verb" "do" - a predication "She hoped that he would search the room carefully before her arrival but he did not so" (A University Grammar of English - R.Quirk, S.Green Barm: 162) Here "do so" replaces all the underlined portion, the head verb "search" and the rest of predicating, as is shown below: Sentence S P | | | auxiliary as | operator predication | | | | | | | | … he would search the room carefully … he didn't so 5.3.2 "Such" "Such" is used as the backward pointing reference in two ways: It can joint to other words as part of a group pointing to things, people or events; and Bùi Thị Thanh Mai - 40A1 English 60 The definite reference is used in idiomatical phrase like "as such" to express the meaning in the exact sense of the preceding word or phrase "Such" with or without adjective is used before countable plural/singular noun or before uncountable noun "My friends would take the children out and keep them for a night to give me a break, and my doctor continued to listen, to believe, teaching me how to cope I was very lucky to be surrounded by such understanding and love." (Linking Words - Collins Cobuild : 137) "Such understanding and love" tells us the understanding and love shown to the speaker by his friends and his doctor In order to make out this phrase, we need to look backwards to find out its referent meaning "Such" can follow words such as "all", "any", "many", "no", "one", "some" "I will tell you what I will do, catch the first plane back to Los Angeles Even as she said it she knew she would no such thing." (Linking Words - Collins Cobuild : 133) "No such thing" means that she would not catch a plane back to Los Angeles "As such" requires to be looked backwards to previous words and expresses the meaning in the exact sense of the term "He had no plan of action as such" (Linking Words - Collins Cobuild : 138) "As such" here means he had no actual plan, though perhaps he had various ideas about what to Sometimes, "such" is in the initial place of the sentence For example: Bùi Thị Thanh Mai - 40A1 English 61 The definite reference "She was struck by a picture of a woman with a long dress and a plunging neckline and a tall hair - Such were the fashion in those days" (Linking Words - Collins Cobuild : 138) "Such" now refers to the thing that is what the fashions were in those days such as long dress, plunging neckline and tall hair - do… "Such" is used specially to indicate identity of type: "They regularly get The Daily Courier I wouldn't read such a paper" (A University Grammar of English R.Quirk, S.Green Baum : 303) "like" plus "that" or "those" is also used anaphorically for identity of type, and post modifies the noun phrase head: "They regularly get The Daily Courier I wouldn't read a paper like that" (A University Grammar of English - R.Quirk, S.Green Baum : 303) "Like this" and "this way" are used cataphorically: "He told it this way George was running down the road and…" like this (A University Grammar of English - R.Quirk, S.Green Baum : 304) "Such" is used more commonly than "so" and "that" when the adjective is in a noun phrase: "There were two thousand people in the theatre I didn't expect it to be so full" (A University Grammar of English - R.Quirk, S.Green Baum : 304) "There were two thousand people in the theatre I didn't expect such a large audience" (A University Grammar of English - R.Quirk, S.GreenBaum : 304) In informal situations, we use phrases: "like this/that" or "this/that kind of…" Bùi Thị Thanh Mai - 40A1 English 62 The definite reference "Many long-term prisoners come to regard prison as their home, when this kind of prisoner is released, they have serious problem." (i.e long-term prisoner) (A Practical English Grammar - A.B Thomson : 568) In formal situations, "such+N(s) " can be used and has the meaning "like this/that" or "belonging to the mentioned type" "Many long term prisoners come to regard prison as their home, when such prisoners are released - they have serious problem" (A Practical English Grammar - A.B Thomson : 568) 5.3.3 "Do" The verb "do" is also considered to be one way of referring Though it is a kind of substitution, we can guess the meaning of referent and referent itself through it "Do" appears with "so", "it" and "that" to substitute the predicate (clause except for the subject ) and the tense aspect also changes when substituting "I always read a lot and I am doing so more than ever while preparing a new TV programmer" (Linking Words - Collins Cobuild : 133) "I am doing so" means that I am reading more than ever Bùi Thị Thanh Mai - 40A1 English 63 The definite reference PART III CONCLUSION Through this study, all of us can see that one of the complicated but interesting language phenomena in English is reference In order to discover the meaning of words, the reciever needs to refer to other words or to elements of the context understood by both sender and reciever In Chapter II, we gradually present to everyone all types of reference, subtypes of the definite reference and the relationship between reference and substitution Reference is devided into three kinds by J.C.Richards : Generic reference (the usual term used for reference to whole class of things), definite reference (the usual term used for reference to an identified subset) and indefinite reference (the usual term used for reference to an unidentified subset) Within the definite reference, it consists of three subtypes: * Anaphora : the identity of somebody or something to be given once at the beginning * Cataphora : the reverse of anaphora and it is relatively straight forewards * Exophora : It directs the reciever "out of" the text and into an assumed shared world Being an international language, English has its own interesting characteristics and reference is considered to be one of the popular language phenomena of English And through this study, we hope that everyone has Bùi Thị Thanh Mai - 40A1 English 64 The definite reference basically necessary knowledge of cohensive tie in English Moreover, we expect that the readers will have necessary information and sufficient one not only to distinguish substitution and reference but also to apply some different referring expressions effectively to different situations Hoping that the knowledge of reference will become the best foundation for everyone to master all language phenomena in English Mistakes and restrictions are unavoidable in this study , we would like to receive your feedback, comments and advice on this material REFERENCE 1,A A k'majian, R.M Harnish Linguistics Oxford University Press, 1971 2, C Cobuild Linking Words NXB Giáo dục 2002 3, Guy Cook Discourse 4, M MC Cathy Discourse Analysis for Language Teachers Cambridge University Press 1991 5, M.MC Cathy, Felicity, O'Dell English Vocabulary in Use Cambridge University Press 1993 6, Green Baum, Sidney, Quirk Randolph A University Grammar of English Longman 1987 7, A.V Martinet, A.J Thomson A Practical English Grammar NXB Thanh Niên 8, F.R Palmer Semantics Cambridge University Press 1971 9, J.C Richards Functional English Grammar Cambridge University Press 1999 10, Lê Đình Thảo Discourse and Language Education 1996 11, George Yule Pragmatics Oxford University Press 1996 Bùi Thị Thanh Mai - 40A1 English 65 The definite reference Bùi Thị Thanh Mai - 40A1 English 66 ... and its theory Types of reference 12 II The detail of definite reference 15 What is the definite reference 15 Subtypes of the definite reference 15 Chapter III : Some other reference patterns 28... meaning, the reference is indefinite, not generic For example : " … the green hills … covered with many colorful flowers" II THE DETAIL OF DEFINITE REFERENCE What is the definite reference ? The definite. .. divided reference into three kinds They are generic reference, indefinite reference and definite reference The usual term used for reference to whole class of things is generic reference, the usual