linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

, referential indeterminacy is a situation in which different people vary in naming objects. For example,

William Labov William David Labov ( ; December4, 1927December17, 2024) was an American linguist widely regarded as the founder of the discipline of variationist sociolinguistics. He has been described as "an enormously original and influential figure who has ...

studied this effect using illustrations of different drinking vessels to see what people would label as "cups" and what people would label as "mugs".

See also