This paper reviews research on the production of referential expressions, examining the choice between explicit and attenuated lexical forms (e.g., pronouns vs. names), and between acoustically prominent and attenuated pronunciations. Both choices can be explained in terms of addressee-design, in that explicit expressions tend to be used in situations where the referent is relatively hard for the addressee to identify. At the same time, research on the mechanisms of reference production has identified some limits to the role of addressee design during reference production. (Contains 2 figures.)