Meaning

A Meaning is a conceptual Relation between a Referencer (a Meaning Carrier) and a Signified Concept.

• Context:
  • It can be represented by a Meaning Representation, e.g. the relation between a Definition and its Referent.
  • It can range from being a Syntactic Meaning to being a Semantic Meaning.
  • It can range from being Linguistic Meaning.
• Example(s):
  • “In the future when I say 'X' I [mean] that item there which I am pointing to.”
  • “What does sentence X [mean]? It [means] that so and so...”
  • a Word Sense.
  • …
• Counter-Example(s):
  • Reference,
  • Meaning Carrier.
• See: Semantics, Semantic Relation, Reference Relation, Belief.

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References

2009a

• WordNet.
  • the message that is intended or expressed or signified; "what is the meaning of this sentence"; "the significance of a red traffic light"; "the ...
  • meaning(a): rich in significance or implication; "a meaning look"

2009b

• (Wikipedia, 2009) ⇒ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meaning_(semiotics)
  • In semiotics, the meaning of a sign is its place in a sign relation, in other words, the set of roles that it occupies within a given sign relation. This statement holds whether sign is taken to mean a sign type or a sign token. ...

2009c

• (Wikipedia, 2009) ⇒ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meaning_(linguistics)
  • Linguistic strings can be made up of phenomena like words, phrases, and sentences, and each seems to have a different kind of meaning. Individual words all by themselves, such as the word "bachelor," have one kind of meaning, because they only seem to refer to some abstract concept. ...

2009

• (Wiktionary, 2009) ⇒ http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Meaning
  • The symbolic value of something; The significance of a thing, as "the meaning of life"; The definition or connotation of a word

2000

• (Chierchia & McConnell-Ginet, 2000) ⇒ Gennaro Chierchia, and Sally McConnell-Ginet. (2000). “Meaning and Grammar: An Introduction to Semantics, 2nd edition." MIT Press.
  • Semantics is the branch of linguistics devoted to the investigation of linguistic meaning, the interpretation of expressions in a language system.

1923

• (Odgen and Richards, 1923) ⇒ Charles K. Ogden and Ivor A. Richards. (1923). “The Meaning of Meaning: A Study of the Influence of Language upon Thought and of the Science of Symbolism." University of Cambridge.

1892

• (Frege, 1892) ⇒ Gottlob Frege. (1892). “On Sense and Reference.” In: Zeitschrift für Philosophie und philosophische Kritik, C: 25-50.
  • NOTES: It includes his famous argument on the distinction between Sense and Reference.
  • NOTES: It presents the example of the two Greek Words “Hesperus” and “Phosphorus” that in ancient Greece stood for (invoked the Sense of) the “evening star” and “morning star” which at that time were unknown to have the same Referent: i.e. Venus (a situation that allows for the False Belief “Hesperus”≠"Phosphorus"=>True).

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