Mistaking Ideational Denotation And Deixis For Textual Reference

Martin & Rose (2007: 180):

So whereas the examples in an argument identify specific participants like narratives do, the generalisations in an argument do not. The reason for this is that with generic reference there’s not a lot of sorting out to do. If you know what amnesty means in English, you know what Tutu is talking about, because he’s talking about amnesty in general. Helena on the other hand had to sort out several different men in her story: her first and second loves, her first husband, her second love’s three friends, Mr de Klerk, ‘those at the top’ and so on. This puts a lot more pressure on the identification system to sort out who’s who. For amnesty in general, a simple noun generally does the trick.

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[1] To be clear, this mistakes reference in the sense of ideational denotation — nominal groups realising participants — for reference in the textual sense of a personal, demonstrative or comparative reference item presuming an identity to be recovered endophorically (cohesively) or exophorically.

[2] To be clear, this mistakes the deictic function of determiners — sub-classifying the Thing of a nominal group — for the reference function of determiners. It is the deictic function of determiners that "sorts out the the different men in her story". The referential function of determiners presumes Helena as the identity to be recovered, not the men in her life.