【正确答案】Sense may be defined as the semantic relations between one word and another, or more generally between on linguistic unit and another. It is concerned with the intra-linguistic relations. In contrast, reference is concerned with the relation between a word and the thing it refers to, or more generally between a word and a non-linguistic entity it refers to.
Leech also uses "sense" as a briefer term for his conceptual meaning. This usage is justifiable in that as technical term "sense" may be used in the same way as "connotation" is used in philosophy. It may refer to the properties an entity has. In this sense. "sense" is equivalent to "concept". So the distinction between "sense" and "reference" can be comparable to that between "connotation" and "denotation". The former refers to the abstract properties of an entity, which the latter refers to the concrete entities having these properties. There is another difference between sense and reference. To some extent, we can say every word has a sense; otherwise we will not be able to use it or understand it. But not every word has a reference. Words like God, ghost and dragon refer to imaginary things. which do not exist in reality.
Chinese examples:
汉语中的“龙”有其内涵意义，但它是虚构出来的，在现实中无法找到其所指。再比如
“男人”意为男性的人，其外延为世界上所有男性的人，其指称为具体语境下说话者与受话者所共知的某男性的人。

【答案解析】[解析] 本题考查词汇的意义、外延和指称的关系问题。