Who creates reference?

Abstract

This contribution sketches the role of hearers in the long history of reference research. Canonical approaches from semantics and (early) pragmatics as well as cognitive approaches are discussed with respect to the increasing role that hearers play in these various notions of reference. In the framework of Text-world model theory, reference objects are considered to be mental concepts that can vary as discourse progresses, as a result of a negotiation between speakers and hearers. Examples from German oral conversation corpora show that reference should be described as a collaborative, interactive procedure in order to get a notion of reference that is compatible with and useful for the analysis of conversation phenomena.