Referential opacity

From Glottopedia
Revision as of 15:46, 20 February 2009 by Wohlgemuth (talk | contribs) (utrecht)
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Jump to navigation Jump to search
STUB
CAT This article needs proper categorization. You can help Glottopedia by categorizing it
Please do not remove this block until the problem is fixed.

Referential opacity is a property of words which entails that it is impossible to 'see inside' them, and refer to their parts by using an anaphoric device such as a pronoun.

Example

there cannot be an anaphoric relation between it and tea in the compound teapot. Therefore, if the sentence he took the teapot and poured it into the cup means that he poured the tea into the cup, the fact that it refers to the tea does not arise through the anaphoric relation that is possible in he took the tea and poured it into the cup. Referential opacity is closely related to the property of lexical integrity.

Links

Utrecht Lexicon of Linguistics