1923 TheMeaningOfMeaning

From GM-RKB
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Subject Headings: Knowledge Representation, Reference Relation, Triangle of Meaning.

Notes

Cited By

2015

  • (Wikipedia, 2015) ⇒ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Meaning_of_Meaning Retrieved:2015-4-13.
    • The Meaning of Meaning: A Study of the Influence of Language upon Thought and of the Science of Symbolism (1923) is a book by C. K. Ogden and I. A. Richards, Magdalene College, University of Cambridge. It is accompanied by the two supplementary essays by Bronisław Malinowski and F. G. Crookshank.

      Although the original text was published in 1923 it has been used as a textbook in many fields including linguistics, philosophy, language, cognitive science and most recently semantics and semiotics in general. The book has been in print continuously since 1923. The most recent edition is the critical edition prepared by W. Terrence Gordon as volume 3 of the 5-volume set C. K. Ogden & Linguistics (London: Routledge/Thoemmes Press, 1995). For full publication history, including serialized publication in The Cambridge Magazine prior to the first edition of the book, consult W. Terrence Gordon, C. K. Ogden: a bio-bibliographical study (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1990) or contact the author.

      Richards sets forth a contextual theory of Signs: that Words and Things are connected “through their occurrence together with things, their linkage with them in a ‘context’ that Symbols come to play that important part in our life [even] the source of all our power over the external world” (47). In this context system, Richards develops a tri-part semiotics — symbol, thought and referent with three relations between them (thought to symbol=correct, thought–referent=adequate, symbol–reference=true) (11). Symbols are “those signs which men use to communicate one with another and as instruments of thought, occupy a peculiar place” (23). “All discursive symbolization involves […] weaving together of contexts into higher contexts” (220). So for a word to be understood “requires that it form a context with further experiences” (210). [1] The book would later influence A. J. Ayer's Language, Truth, and Logic, an introduction to Logical Positivism, and both the RichardsOgden book and the Ayer book would, in turn, influence Alec King and Martin Ketley in the writing of their book The Control of Language, which appeared in 1939, and which influenced C. S. Lewis in the writing of his defense of natural law and objective values, The Abolition of Man (1943).

  1. Richards, IA and CK Ogden. The Meaning of Meaning. Harvest/HBJ 1989.

2009

  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Meaning_of_Meaning
    • One of the key innovations of the book was the differentiation between three separate dimensions:
      • The conceptual domain - thoughts that are in our minds
      • The symbolic domain - words and symbols that we use to communicate with others
      • The real world - things in the real world that we refer to in our thoughts and with symbols

Quotes


,

 AuthorvolumeDate ValuetitletypejournaltitleUrldoinoteyear
1923 TheMeaningOfMeaningIvor A. Richards
Charles K. Ogden (1889-1957)
The Meaning of Meaning: A Study of the Influence of Language upon Thought and of the Science of Symbolismhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The Meaning of Meaning1923