Abstract

This paper proposes a structural transformation of reference from an externalist, object-directed relation to an internal linguistic operation governed by syntactic invariance. By analyzing Gertrude Stein’s famously tautological sentence—“a rose is a rose is a rose”—it shows how apparent repetitions encode nuanced referential mechanisms within their syntactic structure. Reference, on this account, ceases to be primarily denotational, becoming instead a recursive and rule-governed procedure internal to linguistic form. Through a rigorous integration of analytic philosophy, structural linguistics, and semiotic theory, the paper argues that meaning emerges from these internal linguistic invariances rather than from a relationship to extralinguistic entities. This reframing contributes both to contemporary debates in the philosophy of language regarding the nature of reference and to structuralist and semiotic traditions by providing a formally precise interpretation of linguistic coherence.