Chapter 1. Reference
Reference is the symbolic relationship between a linguistic expression and a concrete or abstract entity that it represents. In this chapter a distinction is made between the referring expression (the linguistic expression) and the discourse referent (the concrete or abstract entity being referred to). Referring expressions may be instantiated by different kinds of expressions. This chapter offers a description from a discourse perspective of the main components, namely deixis, definiteness, indefiniteness and specificity, and impersonal reference, which are instantiated via morphophonological, lexical and syntactic means.