Reference point concepts and document quality

Some words can only be understood by using a reference point taken from the utterance context or the background knowledge of speaker and hearer. Examples are persondeictics (e.g., ‘I’, ‘you’ ), some quantifirs (e.g., ‘rarely’, ‘often’) and gradable adjectives (e.g., ‘long’, ‘interesting’). In the first part of this article, the notion of reference point concept is introduced and illustrated. In addition, some principles governing the interpretation of these concepts are discussed. A crucial presumption underlying their use is that there is sufficient common ground between speaker and hearer.

In the second part of the article, it is shown that the use of reference point concepts may affect the quality of documents. Quantifiers in patient information leaflets are often misunderstood due to the lack of common ground between writers and readers; and evaluative adjectives in travel brochures increase the persuasive effect of the document, perhaps because they successfully suggest common ground.