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:
“For my own part, I would rather be in company with a dead man than with an absent one; for if the dead man gives me no pleasure, at least he shows me no contempt; whereas the absent one, silently indeed, but very plainly, tells me that he does not think me worth his attention.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)