In theoretical linguistics, the concept of reference appears most commonly as either a sentence-level phenomenon (in syntax) or as the process or action that creates a textual realization of a real-world entity (in semantics or pragmatics). In syntax, the relationship between a referring item and its referent – usually within the same sentence – is called anaphora (or backwards anaphora). In her 2008 lectures on the study of anaphora, Partee states that

A semantic approach would define reference as the act of establishing a relationship between expressions and those objects, events or situations in the world that those expressions designate (de Beaugrande, 1990; Lyons, 1995). That is, referring means marking a unique object in discourse as existing in the real world. Reference is thus “a human action of entering a statement into a textual world” (de Beaugrande, 1990, 111), which is carried out by definite or indefinite noun-headed phrases, or quantified nouns or pronouns, for example. Deixis involves reference that expresses pointing to the spacio-temporal context with proximal (this, here, now) or distal terms (that, there, then) “centred upon the speaker’s here-and-now” (Lyons, 1995, 305). The near-far distinction reflected in time adverbs and determiners is also a relevant concept in endophoric (or text-internal) reference, as they may imply the distance of the presupposed element in a text, for example. What de Beaugrande calls co-reference which is “the use of alternative expressions in a text for the same text-world entity” (de Beaugrande, 1990, 111) is analyzed as endophoric reference in discourse analysis. The difference in terminology reflects the two approaches to the treatment of referring expressions as pointing towards another textual element (endophoric) or as one of the number of linguistic items in a text together pointing to the same real world entity (co-reference). While the term endophoric reference will be used here, obviously, the two described referring processes take place at the same time in the event of text production or interpretation, and ideally, an analysis of reference should reflect both.

The same phenomenon may occur in a conversation [e.g., 2.] between waiters, where the pronoun he refers to the cheese sandwich.

This process also “appears to work, in terms of convention, between all members of a community who share a common language and culture when they assume that “certain referring expressions will be used to identify certain entities on a regular basis” (Yule, 1996, 19). Such linguistic approaches offer illuminating insights into the way reference works.