Reference

Reference is a relation that obtains between certain sorts of representational tokens and objects. For instance, when one asserts that "Mussolini was a Fascist," We use a particular sort of representational token, i.e. the name "Mussolini", which refers to a particular individual, i.e. Mussolini. While names and other referential terms are hardly the only type of representational token capable of referring (consider, for instance, concepts, mental maps, and pictures), linguistic tokens like these have long stood at the center of philosophical inquiries into the nature of reference.