Unit 4: Logic and language
Philosophy of Language is the reasoned inquiry(question) into the origins of language, nature of
meaning, the usage and cognition of language, and the relationship between language and
reality.
it poses questions like "What is meaning?", "How does language refer to the real world?", "Is
language learned or is it innate?", "How does the meaning of a sentence emerge out of its
parts? , and other related issues.
"what is meaning?"- ―Meaning" can be described as the content carried by the words or signs
exchanged by people when communicating through language.
Arguably, there are two essentially different types of linguistic meaning.
Conceptual meaning: is the basic, dictionary meaning of a word, without any extra emotions or
associations. It is the core meaning that helps us understand words and sentences logically.
- refers to the definitions of words (semantic feature of the words) (semantic=tergum)
Example 1: The word "dog"
Conceptual meaning: A four-legged animal that barks and is kept as a pet.
This meaning does not change based on emotions or feelings.
Example 2: The sentence "She bought a car."
Conceptual meaning: A woman purchased a vehicle.
2. associative meaning - (which refers to the individual mental understandings of the speaker,
and which may be connotative, collocative, social, affective, reflected or thematic)
Associative meaning is the extra meaning a word carries based on personal experiences,
emotions, culture, or context. It is not part of the basic dictionary (conceptual) meaning but is
influenced by how people feel or think about a word.
Explanation
It is subjective, meaning it can change from person
Types of Associative Meaning (with Examples)
1. Connotative Meaning – The emotions or feelings a word gives.
Example: "Home" – Conceptually, it means a place where someone lives, but associatively, it
may mean warmth, safety, or family.
There are several approaches to the philosophical nature of meaning. Among others, the
following are the major ones:
1) Idea theories: The Idea Theory states that the meaning of a word is the mental image or idea
it creates in a person's mind. When we hear a word, we associate it with an internal thought or
concept.
Explanation; Meaning is based on personal mental representations.
Different people may have different mental images for the same word.
Example
When someone says "tree," you imagine a tall plant with leaves and branches. However, the
exact image may differ—one person may picture an oak tree, while another may think of a palm
tree.
2) Truth-conditional theories: these theories hold meaning to be the conditions under which an
expression may be true or false.
3)The Use Theory of meaning suggests that the meaning of a word is determined by how it is
used in language
Associated with Ludwig Wittgenstein, who argued that words get their meaning from the way
they are used in particular social and linguistic practices.
4) Reference Theory of Meaning
The Reference Theory suggests that the meaning of a word is closely tied to the object or thing
it refers to in the world. According to this theory, words have meaning because they point to or
represent real-world entities or concepts.
