Abstract
This article discusses the main approaches that have been proposed to describe referential relations, with special reference to spoken language. It examines (a) the cognitive-functional approach, according to which the coding of referential relations mainly aims to make referents identifiable, (b) the conversational approach, which focuses on the role played by referential expressions in signaling communicative moves, and (c) various socioethnographic approaches, which underline how referential expressions specify the type of relationship the speaker and addressee either have or establish with the referents denoted in the ongoing conversation (deference, distance, involvement, etc.). It is suggested that the pragmatic perspective on which Relevance Theory rests may be suited to combining the results obtained so far in a profitable way.
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