The development of contemporary Western poetics exhibits two notable characteristics: the linguistic turn and the integration with other disciplines, particularly philosophy. Language, referent, and meaning have emerged as crucial and even central aspects that demand attention in poetic theory. This article examines poetry through the lens of philosophy of language, reflecting on the perspectives of analytical philosophers such as Frege, Wittgenstein, and Searle regarding literary referent. It explores the various forms of poetic referent and demonstrates its non-objective, intricate, and diverse nature. Furthermore, this article extends the discourse to investigate the semantic trajectory of poetic language. Its objective is to illustrate that analytical philosophy furnishes a foundation and point of reference for the study of poetic referent. However, given the diversity of poetic referent and the elusiveness of meaning, the exploration of poetic referent necessitates surpassing the confines of analytical philosophy, which tends to objectify and pursue the truth value of meaning. Poetry articulates the truth of existence and the significance of life in a distinctive manner, offering us guidance and inspiration by transcending this analytical framework.

Yanzhu Fan. An Analysis of Poetic Referent from the Perspective of Philosophy of Language. Academic Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences (2023) Vol. 6, Issue 19: 6-11. https://doi.org/10.25236/AJHSS.2023.061902.

[1] Hirschkop, K. (2019). Linguistic Turns, 1890-1950: Writing on Language as Social Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[2] Wang, Z., & Zhang, Y. (2020). A Reassessment of Literary Theory Issues in the Perspective of Linguistic Turn. Beijing: China Social Sciences Press.

[3] Frege, G. (1948). Sense and Reference (M. Black, Trans.). The Philosophical Review, 57(3), 210.

[4] Wang, Z. (2011). An Investigation of the Literary Referential Path beyond the Perspective of Analytic Philosophy. Literary Review, 3, 6.

[5] Wittgenstein, L. (2005). Philosophical Investigations (L. Bulou, Trans.). Beijing: Commercial Press.

[6] Searle, J. R. (1975). The logical status of fictional discourse. New Literary History, 6, 328.

[7] Qian, J. (1998). Structural-Functional Linguistics - The Prague School. Changchun: Jilin Education Press.

[8] Jakobson, R. (1987). Linguistics and poetics. In K. Pomorska & S. Rudy (Eds.), Language in Literature (pp. 62-94). London: The Belknap Press.

[9] J. Mukarovsky. (1977). Poetic reference. In L. Matejka & I.R. Titunik (Eds.), Semiotics of art: Prague School contributions (pp. 156, 160). London: The MIT Press.

[10] Heidegger, M. (2017). On the Way to Language (S. Zhouxing, Trans.). Commercial Press.

[11] Eliot, T.S. (1961). On Poetry and Poets. New York: The Noonday Press.

[12] Hachen, L. (2009). Postmodernist Poetics: History, Theory, Fiction (L. Yang & L. Feng, Trans.). Nanjing University Press.

[13] Riffaterre, M. (1978). Semiotics of Poetry. Bloomington and London: Indiana University Press.

[14] Kristeva, J., & Huang, B., & Zhu, K. (2015). Subject, intertext, and psychoanalysis: Kristeva's lectures at Fudan University. (K. Zhu & B. Huang, Trans.). Shanghai, China: The Commercial Press. (Original work published 2015). Cited in Wang, X. P. (2018). A study on Roman Jakobson's theory of verbal communication. (Doctoral dissertation, Nanjing Normal University).

[15] Prinz, J., & Mandelbaum, E. (2015). Poetic Opacity: How to Paint Things with Words. In J. Gibson (Ed.), The Philosophy of Poetry (Online ed., pp. 1-18). Oxford: Oxford Academic.

[16] Sun, G. (2009). Heidegger's Poetic Reflection on Non-Formal Linguistics. Foreign Literature Research, 3, 19-26.

[17] Sun, Z. (2009). Philosophical Questions of Post-Philosophy (1st ed.). Beijing: Commercial Press. (Original work published 2009).