Denotation and reference

The relation of denotation holds between a lexeme and a whole class of extra-linguistic objects. Lyons, for example, defines the denotation of a lexeme as ‘the relationship that holds between that lexeme and persons, things, places, properties, processes and activities external to the language system’ [Lyons 1977: 207]. The denotative meaning of a signifier is intended to communicate the objective semantic content of the represented thing. So, in the case of a lexical word, say "book", the intention is to do no more than describe the physical object. Any other meanings or implications will be connotative meanings. To say what the word ‘job’ denotes is to identify all those entities in the world that are appropriately called ‘jobs’. What dictionaries give us as explanations for lexemes are in fact what we call a denotation. So the denotation of the lexeme ‘job’ would be ‘a regular activity performed in exchange for payment, esp. as one’s trade, occupation, or profession’. This is not to say that the denotation of the word will be the same across dictionaries. In fact, description of an entry, which is what, in fact, denotation comes down to, varies from dictionary to dictionary, from thesaurus to thesaurus etc. In another dictionary, Oxford English Reference Dictionary, the word job is described as ‘a paid position of employment’ or, in another meaning, ‘a piece of work, esp. one done for hire or profit’. Whenever we come across an unfamiliar word, we usually start looking for its denotation, which we find in dictionaries, encyclopedias, references etc. As opposed to denotation, the relationship of reference holds between an expression and what that expression stands for on particular occasions of its utterance’(Lyons 1977 : 207). Lyons further notes that reference, unlike denotation, depends on specific utterances, not on abstract sentences. In addition, reference is not normally applicable to single word forms and never to single lexemes. The crucial difference between reference and denotation is that the denotation of an expression is invariant and utterance-independent (invariant means ‘constant, not varying, unaffected by a change in the situation, specific context’). It is part of the meaning which the expression has in the language-system, irrespective of its use in any given context’. Reference, in contrast, is variable and utterance-dependent. For example, the word ‘president’ always denotes a position or an official elected to preside over a body of people (of a country, a company, at a meeting etc.). This is the inherent meaning that the lexeme possesses, irrespective of a concrete utterance. At the same time, the phrases ‘He is now president-elect’, ‘How is the president going to react?’ or ‘He felt like a president during the Watergate scandal’ will refer to different members of the class and, consequently, mean a different thing – in this case, person, on different occasions of utterance. The important thing to remember is that lexemes as such do not have reference, but may be used as components of referring expressions in particular contexts of utterance.