Full Idea
Reference is a social phenomenon. Individual speakers do not have to know how to distinguish robins, or elms, or aluminium. They can always rely on experts to do this for them.
Gist of Idea
Reference (say to 'elms') is a social phenomenon which we can leave to experts
Source
Hilary Putnam (Representation and Reality [1988], §2 p.22)
Book Reference
Putnam,Hilary: 'Representation and Reality' [MIT 1992], p.22
A Reaction
It can't just be a social phenomenon. The experts don't just enquire about standard usage, or defer to Hilary Putnam.
Related Idea
Idea 23645 A word's meaning is the thing conceived, as fixed by linguistic experts [Reid]