Theories of Meaning
Introduction
In the course of history, the nature of meaning has been one of the major issues in the philosophical debate. The issue was first raised in the ancient Greek world, and was subsequently tackled by numerous philosophers. In the 19th century, meaning also entered the realm of linguistics – first in the context of diachronic linguistics, later also as a synchronic study. The main concepts in the theory of meaning, apart from meaning itself, are synonymy (or sameness of meaning), significance (or possession of meaning), and analyticity (or truth by virtue of meaning). The main concepts in the theory of reference are naming, truth, denotation (or truth of), and extension. Another is the notion of values of variables. All the notions of the theory of meaning are out of the same box. There are several theories of meaning, such as Referential Theory, Ideational Theory, Use Theory, and Behavioural Theory.
1. The Referential Theory The theory of meaning which relates the meaning of a word to the thing it refers to, or stands for, is known as the referential theory. This theory was first expounded by Aristotle in the fourth century BC. It is generally possible to explain the meaning of a word by pointing to the thing it refers to. In the case of proper nouns and definite noun phrases, this is especially true. When we say "The most famous English poet is William Shakespeare", we do use "the most famous English poet" and "William Shakespeare" to mean a particular person. When we explain the meaning of desk by pointing to the thing it refers to, we do not mean a desk must be of the particular size, shape, colour and material as the desk we are pointing to at the moment of speaking. We are using this particular desk as an example, an instance, of something more general. That is, there is something behind the concrete thing we can see with our eyes. And that something is abstract, which has no existence in the material world and can only be
In the course of history, the nature of meaning has been one of the major issues in the philosophical debate. The issue was first raised in the ancient Greek world, and was subsequently tackled by numerous philosophers. In the 19th century, meaning also entered the realm of linguistics – first in the context of diachronic linguistics, later also as a synchronic study. The main concepts in the theory of meaning, apart from meaning itself, are synonymy (or sameness of meaning), significance (or possession of meaning), and analyticity (or truth by virtue of meaning). The main concepts in the theory of reference are naming, truth, denotation (or truth of), and extension. Another is the notion of values of variables. All the notions of the theory of meaning are out of the same box. There are several theories of meaning, such as Referential Theory, Ideational Theory, Use Theory, and Behavioural Theory.
1. The Referential Theory The theory of meaning which relates the meaning of a word to the thing it refers to, or stands for, is known as the referential theory. This theory was first expounded by Aristotle in the fourth century BC. It is generally possible to explain the meaning of a word by pointing to the thing it refers to. In the case of proper nouns and definite noun phrases, this is especially true. When we say "The most famous English poet is William Shakespeare", we do use "the most famous English poet" and "William Shakespeare" to mean a particular person. When we explain the meaning of desk by pointing to the thing it refers to, we do not mean a desk must be of the particular size, shape, colour and material as the desk we are pointing to at the moment of speaking. We are using this particular desk as an example, an instance, of something more general. That is, there is something behind the concrete thing we can see with our eyes. And that something is abstract, which has no existence in the material world and can only be
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