Absent Referent

Absent referent (sometimes missing referent, or missing antecedent) is a concept that originated in linguistics, and is the condition of a sign that has an empty, absent, contingent, paradoxical, hypothetical, supernatural, or undefined referent. The idea is used in a number of disciplines.

Read more about Absent Referent:  Memorials, Ethics, Mathematics and Physics, Implicit Vs. Explicit

Famous quotes containing the word absent:

    I am absent altogether too much to be a suitable instructor for a law-student. When a man has reached the age that Mr. Widner has, and has already been doing for himself, my judgment is, that he reads the books for himself without an instructor. That is precisely the way I came to the law.
    Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)