One element of the essence of language is that the language has a function as tools of communication.

It is caused that the key to open the essence of language is communication. And the essence of communication occurred in the process i.e. an activity of advising the relation between the communicator (speaker) and the communicant (reader or listener) through the time and place. In order to avoid the misunderstanding during the process the speaker has to use linguistic forms to enable the listeners or readers to identity something that the speaker means, and this activity is called as reference in pragmatics study. Based on that fact, in this essay we are going to talk about the reference and inference. To get understand what reference is may lead us to understand what the reference expression, inference, attributive uses, context, the rule of co-text, and anaphoric reference. Firstly, as we know that the reference is an act in which a speaker/writer uses linguistic forms to enable a listener/reader to identify something (words themselves do not refer to anything, people refer), there are some linguistic forms reference expressions that can be used. They are proper nouns, noun phrases whether it is definite or indefinite phrase, and pronouns. For example: Jakarta (proper noun), the doctor (definite noun phrase), a student (indefinite phrase), he, him, or them (pronouns). The use of those linguistic forms is depend on the assumption of speaker that the listener already know about the choice and the use of linguistic forms used by him or her. It is clear that reference is closely related with the goals and the beliefs of speaker. Secondly, by the use the reference expression only does not give us the guarantee that the reference automatically occurred and can be understood by the reader or the listener. But we have to recognize that there is the rule of inference in which the listener's task is to infer correctly which entity the speaker intends to identify by using a particular referring expression. It is caused there is no direct relationship between entities and words. to infer correctly, we can use vague expressions ('the blue thing', 'that icky stuff', 'whatsisname') and expressions focusing on one feature ('Mister Aftershave is late today). It means that reference needs to use objectively correct naming, but can work with locally successful choices of expression.

So what the differences between reference and inference is. It can be clear in the example follows: Mr. Kawasaki. is used to refer to man who always rode loud and fast in his motorcycle. A brand name is used to refer to a person here. Can I look at your Chomsky? I enjoy listening to Mozart. This process, where additional information is needed to connect what is said to what is meant, is inference. Thirdly, we must recognize that not all referring expressions have identifiable physical referents indefinite noun phrases can refer to. To avoid it we can use the attributive use and the referential use that Donnellan (1966) states it has one specific entity in mind. For example: a. b. c. a physically present entity: 'There's a man waiting for you' an unknown entity assumed to exist: 'He wants to marry a woman with lots of money' an entity that does not exist: 'We'd like to sign a nine-foot-tall basketball player'

The use in b. (entity only known in terms of descriptive properties) is an attributives use meaning 'who/whatever fits the description. Attributive use is also possible with definite NPs: 'There was no sign of the killer' (when talking about a mysterious death, referential use when a particular person had been identified, chased into a building, but escaped). It indicates that expressions themselves do not have reference but are invested with referential function in a context by a speaker/writer. Fourthly, the convention between all members of a cultural/language community has a collaboration of the intention to identify and the recognition of intention. It can be seen at the follows example: Can I borrow your Shakespeare?

Yeah it's over there on the table, The word 'Shakespeare' here does not refer only to a specific person but can refer to other thing such as a book in this context. Otherwise 'the cheese sandwich' can refer to a person. Where's the cheese sandwich sitting? He's over there by the window Remember that the collaboration process needs not only work between one speaker and one listener; it appears to work, in term of convention, between all members of a community who share a common language and culture. This concept is also called as pragmatic connection in which that between proper names and objects conventionally associated within a socio-culturally defined community. Fifthly, the ability to identify intended referents does not just depend on the understanding of the referring expression, but is aided by the linguistic material, or co-text (i.e. linguistic part of the environment in which a referring expression is used) , accompanying it Brazil wins World Cup ('wins World Cup' limits the range of possible interpretations) The referring expression provides a range of reference, a number of possible referents The cheese sandwich is made with white bread The cheese sandwich left without paying And the context, that is physical environment and (speech) conventions, e.g., a restaurant The heart-attack mustn't be moved (hospital) Your ten-thirty just cancelled (dentist) A couple of rooms have complained about the heat (hotel)

Conventions may differ from one social group to another and reference is a social act in which the speaker assumes that the word/phrase chosen to identify an object/person will be interpreted as the speaker intended (not simply a relationship between the meaning of a word/phrase and an object/person in the world). Finally, in english, the initial reference is often indefinite. The definite noun phrases and the pronouns are examples of subsequent reference to already introduced referents, generally known as anaphora. In the technical terms, the second or subsequent expression is the anaphora and the initial expression ia the antecedent. While definite nouns and pronouns can act as anaphors, ellipsis can as well (zero anaphor). For example: Peel an onion and slice it. Drop the slices into hot oil. Cook for three minutes. The last utterance 'Cook for three minutes' works with the expectation that the listener will be able to infer that the speaker intends to identify the peeled onion slices. It is possible to make inferences when anaphoric expressions are not linguistically connected to their antecedents. I just rented a house. The kitchen is really big We had Chardonnay with dinner. The wine was the best part. The bus came on time, but he didn't stop I just rented a house. The kitchen is really big requires the inference that if x is a house, then x has a kitchen to make an anaphoric connection The knowledge in the listener is assumed (can be specific, e.g. one must know that Chardonnay is a wine, can lead to lack of grammatical agreement (bus - he)) and the social dimension of reference is tied to the effect of collaboration - conversation partners must have something in common/share something (social closeness).

As the result, beside we understand what is the reference, inference, referential and attributive uses, names and referents, context and the rule of co-text, antecedent, anaphoric and cataphora that we have discussed in this essay, we have to remember that the successful reference means that an intention was recognized, via inference, indicating a kind of shared knowledge and hence social connection. Successful reference is necessarily collaborative (shared knowledge); and pragmatics is the study of how more get communicated than is said.