Kolache: An Explanation Of The Referential Theory

Have you ever heard a certain word and you are immediately brought back to a certain memory? Maybe you hear the word “summer” and you can almost feel the sun beating on your skin and smell the fresh ocean air. Maybe it’s a negative memory. Maybe you hear the word “Valentine’s day,” and instantly drown in thoughts of heartbreak and can feel the regret of overindulging in chocolate and wine in your stomach. For me, it’s the word “kolache,” and it is not a good experience. You are probably wondering how someone could not like kolaches. Well, being from Washington, kolaches are foreign. I remember the first time I tasted a kolache. I also remember tasting the same kolache again, only minutes later as I threw up everything inside my body. No, I did not eat a bad kolache. The kolache was delicious. However, the medicine I was on at the time caused me to casually dismiss the contents of my entire stomach. One bad experience made my brain associate feelings of sickness and misery with the wonderful breakfast food known as a “kolache.” This is a prime example of the referential theory. I became quite interested in this theory and decided to …show more content…
The Referential theory “assumes that as children, we learn that things/phenomena have names” (Lee, 2017). Once we are able to understand that, the word can “elicit or stimulate us to think about the thing/phenomenon” (Lee, 2017). Ogden and Richards concluded that this theory could predict numerous things when it comes to the meaning of words. This theory predicts that when we see an object, we learn its name. This theory predicts that when we experience the object, the thought about the object becomes associated with a word or symbol. This theory also predicts that meaning is expressed through the relationships of experience/referent, thought/reference, and symbol for experience (Lee, 2017). Ogden and Richards both made contributions to the study of the meaning of