Nonreferring

Nonreferring is a term used in linguistics and philosophy of language to describe expressions that do not pick out a real object in the actual world. An expression can be nonreferring because no entity satisfies the description, because it refers to a fictional or hypothetical object, or because its referent is otherwise unavailable in the context of evaluation.

In semantics, identifying nonreferring expressions helps account for sentences that seem meaningful but lack a concrete referent. Classic examples include definite descriptions such as “The present King of France,” where no such person exists in the real world, and sentences containing proper names used in fictional or hypothetical contexts. Nonreferring use does not render the sentence meaningless; it often carries truth-conditional content depending on the framework. Under some theories, such as Russell’s theory of descriptions, a nonreferring definite description yields a false sentence because there is no object that satisfies the description. Other theories allow for different truth-value behavior, or for presuppositions that fail when a referent is absent.

Nonreferring expressions also arise in literature and everyday speech, where names or descriptions evoke characters or situations without asserting real existence. In such cases, the semantics may treat the expression as referring within a fictional or discourse context rather than to a real-world object. Nonreferring is thus a useful notion for analyzing how language can be informative and meaningful even when references are not to actual entities.

See also: referent, definite description, proper name, empty name, presupposition.