On the referential capacity of language models: An internalist rejoinder to Mandelkern & Linzen

Abstract Mandelkern and Linzen (2024) argue that words generated by language models (LMs) are linked to causal histories of use within human linguistic communities, and ultimately to their referents. Therefore, LMs’ words refer. We qualify Mandelkern and Linzen’s claim as applicable to a narrow class of expressions. Thus qualified, the claim is valid and motivated by the need to evaluate LMs’ outputs for relevance and truth. Next, we discuss the actual scope of their claim, and we conclude that the bounds of sense and reference in LMs are more restricted than in humans. We close with some considerations on the status of LMs as members of human linguistic communities.