Referential Theory With Quinn's Translation Of Uncertainty

Quine is a famous contemporary analytic philosopher. He was the principalfounder of the logic of pragmatism and has the same reputation as Russell in Westernphilosophy. Quine first proposed the indeterminacy of translation in his Word andObject. It has caused a considerable response in Western philosophy, linguistics andtranslation. Referential theory is the oldest theory of meaning and has great impact inthe meaning theory. Referential theory emphasizes the meaning of words and wordproblems, and relationship between the language and non-verbal things. This paper firstintroduces the ideas and development of the two theories, objectively comment onreferential theory and then criticize referential theory from the uncertainty of meaningand the difference between meaning and reference. Through philosophical theory andordinary language the paper proves that Quine’s criticism of referential theory is correct.Based on criticism of the unreasonable factors of referential theory, on one hand,itpromotes the progress and development of the theory of meaning, on the other hand, ittells the difference between referential theory and the theory of reference. In some sense,it has important implications on English vocabulary teaching.