| Absent Referent |
Article Index for Absent |
Website Links For Absent |
Information AboutAbsent Referent |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT ABSENT REFERENT | |
| linguistics | |
|
Absent Referent (sometimes '''Missing Referent''', or '''Missing Antecedent''') is a concept from Linguistics , and is the condition of a Sign which has an empty, absent, non-existent, paradoxical, hypothetical, supernatural, or undefined Referent . There are many examples of this from such diverse realms as mathematics and physics to philosophy and religion. SEMANTICS / LINGUISTICS "Nothing" Many simple words (linguistic signs) in everyday usage refer to no actual object, and thus are examples of the absent referent: While seemingly trivial, the notion of ''nothingness'' has been studied by philosophers for many years.See Wikipedia Entry For Nothing , under the heading ''Philosophy'' Lexical Pronouns English and other languages use Pronouns as an indirect referent or Antecedent to a person, place, or object. However, sometimes this referent is missing or absent,Henderson, Eric, ''Writing by Choice'', Oxford University Press, 2006; Section 8.3.1. (within 8.3 Pronoun reference) No Reference (missing antecedent) such as in the following:
:See also: '' Null Subject Language , Pro-drop Language , Anaphora (linguistics) '' American Sign Language In American Sign Language , a visual intrepation of language for the hearing impared, there is a notion of a space present referent and a '''space absent referent'''. Representing the absent referent in ASL When the referent of a pronoun is present in the room as the person performing the ASL intrepretation (such as "I" or "she"), it is acceptable practice to gesture to the person or object. However, in the '''space absent''' case, a gesture is made into empty space. The Sentence as Sign Generally, a written symbol or spoken word is considered the sign, however, a cluster of words can also be considered signs with a referent idea. However, not every combination of words have meaning or a referent idea. Some combinations of words are nonsensical and constitute what some call " Word Salad ". Linguist Noam Chomsky is famous for his phrase, " Colorless Green Ideas Sleep Furiously ", which is used to demonstrate the idea between Syntax and meaning. LITERATURE The general case of the Stoltzfus, Ben "A Post-Lacanian Reading of Hemingway's 'The Garden of Eden'." The American Journal of Semiotics. Kent: 1987.Vol.5, Iss. 3/4; pg. 381 as well as the films of .Spinks, Randall. "Hanging with Hitchcock." Literature/Film Quarterly. Salisbury: 2004.Vol.32, Iss. 3; pg. 237 RELIGION While many people do not question the existence of the Divine, arguably no person has seen God directly. The Agnostic position is that a supernatural God is, by definition, beyond the natural world and our ability to perceive with our senses. Thus, the Signifer "God" can be considered to have a referent which cannot be directly experienced. It is common for Judaism and some other religions substitute the symbol " G-d " for the written name of the Divine. While defacing, destroying, discarding, or writing the name of God is sinful, presumably doing the same to a ''symbol which represents the name of God'' is permissible. Thus, G-d can be considered an example of the absent referent with double indirection. MATHEMATICS In Mathematics , the absent referent can be seen by many symbols:
PHYSICS Practitioners of modern physics have named many hypothetical objects (such as certain Subatomic Particles , which are predicted by mathematical models, but which have never been observed. ETHICS In a variety of Political contexts, the "absent referent" is a phrase used to call attention to some group or constituency that the author feels is being unjustly ignored. This usage of the phrase appears to arise out of Frankfurt School or Deconstructionist Jargon , and is usually associated with the Political Left . For example, in a paper entitled ''The Sexual Politics of Sneakers: "Common Ground" and Absent-Referent Stories in the Nike Debate'' David M. Boje, ''Organization & Environment'', Vol. 14, No. 3 , 356-363 (2001) DOI: 10.1177/1086026601143007 "the author concludes that there is an absent referent spoken about but missing from the debate" between Nike and its critics: "namely, the workers themselves." The underlying idea here would appear to be that representatives of the workers should have input in discussions between the Nike corporation and Western critics of its labor practices. The condition of being "spoken about but being missing from the debate" appears to be the gist of this use of the words ''absent referent''. The image is that of two people talking about a third person who is standing by without being consulted. The absent referent was written about by . There is an implicit presumption that if people had a connection to the animal which was the source of the food, or the violence involved in the slaughter, much less meat eating would occur. Carol Adams writes of the history of the idea: Later, as I began to work on my first book I was struggling to find a way to explain why people eat animals and why it is so difficult to discuss the issue. I realized that it was because of what I call the structure of the absent referent: Behind every meal of meat is an absence: the death of the animal whose place the meat takes. The "absent referent" is that which separates the meat eater from the animal and the animal from the end product. The function of the absent referent is to keep our "meat" separated from any idea that she or he was once an animal, to keep something from being seen as having been someone. Tracey Smith's use of the term "absent referent" has been widely cited and discussed in scholarly journals.Smith-Harris, Tracey. "There's Not Enough Room to Swing a Cat and There's No Sense Flogging a Dead Horse." ReVision. Washington: Fall 2004.Vol.27, Iss. 2; pg. 12 Mitchell, Gordon R. "Public Argument Action Resrarch And The Learning Curve Of New Social Movements." Argumentation and Advocacy. River Falls: Spring 2004.Vol.40, Iss. 4; pg. 209Gaard,Greta. "Vegetarian ecofeminism." Frontiers. Boulder: 2002.Vol.23, Iss. 3; pg. 117"The sexual politics of meat; a feminist-vegetarian critical theory, 10th anniversary ed." book review. Reference and Research Book News. Portland: February 2001.Vol.16, Iss. 1; pg. n/aEvers, Deborah J., Ph.D., "Vegetarianism and identity: The politics of eating" dissertation, University of Arkansas, 2001, 173 pages; AAT 3025519Heinz,Bettina & Lee, Ronald. "Getting down to the meat: The symbolic construction of meat consumption." Communication Studies. West Lafayette: Spring 1998.Vol.49, Iss. 1; pg. 86 MEMORIALS William M Ramsey said of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial ,"Because each of the 58,022 names points to an absent referent the wall's script remains a half-formed discourse, or signifiers in search of a concept to signify."Ramsey, William M. "Knowing Their Place: Three Black Writers and the Postmodern South." Southern Literary Journal. Chapel Hill: Spring 2005.Vol.37, Iss. 2; pg. 119 SEE ALSO
REFERENCES |
|
|