Implicit Vs. Explicit
Any written symbol for the Absent Referent (e.g., {}, "G-D", 0, "null", etc.) is by nature explicit. However, there is also the implicit Absent Referent, where the symbol for the missing thing is also missing. Examples:
- "wife" -- A person with self-identity, yet exists relative the "husband" (implicit absent referent)
- "pet" -- Barely a thing of its own right, a "pet" mostly exists in reference to the Owner/Master, implicitly absent referent.
Read more about this topic: Absent Referent
Famous quotes containing the words implicit and/or explicit:
“A piece of advice always contains an implicit threat, just as a threat always contains an implicit piece of advice.”
—José Bergamín (1895–1983)
“... the Ovarian Theory of Literature, or, rather, its complement, the Testicular Theory. A recent camp follower ... of this explicit theory is ... Norman Mailer, who has attributed his own gift, and the literary gift in general, solely and directly to the possession of a specific pair of organs. One writes with these organs, Mailer has said ... and I have always wondered with what shade of ink he manages to do it.”
—Cynthia Ozick (b. 1928)