Answer:
Referent – Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary". merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 2012-08-17.
Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition (1989), entry for referent.
Hildegard E. Peplau, Interpersonal Relations in Nursing: A Conceptual Frame ... (2004), p. 289: "Each concept or word has both a referent and a reference. The word is the symbol; the reference is its meaning held in the mind of its user; and the referent is the actions or ob}ect the symbol signified."
David M. Miller, The net of Hephaestus: A study of modern criticism (1971): "... then, the general quality of 'dogness' suggested by the recurrence of similar sense perceptions is abstracted and stored in the memory. We now have a Referent and a Reference. Next, a symbol is constructed: visual and linguistic."
Correspondence from C. K. Ogden to Whately Carington, quoted in C. K. Ogden and Linguistics, Psychology Press, 1994, vol. 1, p. xxiii: "A 'reference' and a 'referent' are parts of a sign or symbol situation 'Visualizing', as such, is not relevant. References are always 'psychological' in a sign or symbol situation; referents may be psychological, i.e., in the order of the referrer's imaginings; ..."
Ėduard Viktorovich Popov Talking with computers in natural language - 1986 - 305 pages - The problem of correspondence between a referent and a reference can also be expressed using descriptions. This can be done as follows: When entities are encountered in a text, an understanding system (either human being or computer) ...
