Referentcentric

Referentcentric is an adjective used to describe theories, analyses, or frameworks that place referents—the real-world objects, entities, or events to which expressions refer—at the center of meaning, interpretation, and communication.

In referent-centric accounts, meaning is anchored in the relationship between linguistic expressions and their referents within a scene or context, with grounding in perceptual data, shared knowledge, and situational factors. This contrasts with sign-centric or symbol-centric approaches that treat linguistic signs, syntax, or mental representations as primary.

Applications and domain examples include linguistics and semiotics, where referent-centric explanations of deictic terms and proper names emphasize how context identifies the referent. In cognitive science and artificial intelligence, referent grounding supports tasks such as reference resolution, image-language alignment, and grounding language to real-world entities.

Limitations and criticisms of the approach include the potential underemphasis of conventionalization, metaphor, abstraction, or the role of syntax. Defining what counts as a referent can be ambiguous, and grounding to real-world referents can be problematic in abstract discourse or fictional contexts.

Relationship to related concepts: referent-centric approaches can complement or contrast with use-theory of meaning, externalist theories of reference, and the symbol grounding problem. It is frequently discussed in debates on deictics, indexing, and embodied cognition.

See also: referent; deixis; reference; grounding (linguistics); symbol grounding problem; cognitive semantics; pragmatics.