ideareferring

Ideareferring is a term used in linguistics and philosophy of language to describe the use of language to refer to mental representations, concepts, or abstract ideas rather than to concrete, observable objects. It focuses on how speakers talk about cognitive content as if it were a referent in discourse, and how such references function within sentences and larger texts.

In ideareferencing, linguistic expressions such as the idea that..., the concept of..., or the proposition that serve as referents for ideas or mental contents. This stands in contrast to ordinary reference to physical things, people, or events. The notion emphasizes that the meaning of these expressions depends on the cognitive or theoretical content they evoke, rather than on a shared physical referent. Ideareference often involves complex interactions with stance, evaluation, and epistemic modality, since speakers may signal belief, doubt, or doubt about an idea through their choice of phrases.

The term is relatively recent and not universally standardized in mainstream semantics. It is used mainly in observational or theoretical discussions to analyze how discourse manages abstract content, how ideas are introduced and tracked across sentences, and how referential success is judged when the referent is intangible. This concept is related to, but distinct from, sense and reference, abstract objects, and discourse deixis.

Methodologically, ideareferencing can be studied through corpus analysis of phrases like the idea of and the concept of, experimental pragmatics on interpretation, and cross-linguistic investigations of how different languages encode abstract references.

See also: sense and reference, abstract objects, discourse deixis, conceptualization in linguistics.