Meaning
Meaning
A highly ambiguous term, with at least four pivotal senses, involving
intention or purpose,
designation or reference,
definition or translation,
causal antecedents or consequences.
Each of these provides overlapping families of cases generated by some or all of the following types of systematic ambiguity–
Arising from a contrast between the standpoints of speaker and interpreter.
arising from contrast between the meaning of specific utterances (tokens) and that of the general (type) symbol.
arising from attention to one rather than another use of language (e.g., to the expressive rather than the evocative or referential uses).
Some of these ambiguities are normally eliminated by attention to the context in which the term ‘meaning’ occurs. Adequate definition, would, accordingly, involve a detailed analysis of the types of context which are most common. The following is a preliminary outline.
“What does X some event, not necessarily linguistic) mean?” =
“Of what is X an index?”
“Of what is X a sign?”
“What does S (a speaker) mean by X (an utterance)?” =
“What are S’s interests, intentions, purposes in uttering X?”
“To whom (what) is he referring?”
“What effect does he wish to produce in the hearer?”
“What other utterance could he have used to express the same interest, make the same reference, or produce the same effect?”
“What does X (an utterance of a speaker) mean to an interpreter?” =
“What does I take S to have meant by X (in any of the senses listed under B)?”
“What does X (a type symbol) mean in language L?”
“What symbols (in L) can be substituted for X (in specified contexts) without appreciable loss of expressive, evocative or referential function?”
In a translation from L into another language M, either of X or of a more complex symbol containing X as part, what portion of the end-product corresponds to X?”
In addition to the above, relatively nontechnical senses, many writers use the word in divergent special ways based upon and implying favored theories about meaning.
See alsoIndex, Sign, Types of Language.
ReferenceOgden and Richards, Meaning of Meaning, Chs. 8 and 9. — M.B.
Fuente: The Dictionary of Philosophy
Meaning
“power, force,” is used of the significance or force of what is spoken, 1Co 14:11. See MIGHT, POWER.