Meaning, Thought and Reality

Meaning, Thought and Reality

1. Action of picking out or identifying with words id often called REFERRING or DENOTING.

   • DENOTE is used for the relationship between a linguistic expression andthe word.
   • REFER is used for the action of a speaker in picking out entities in the world.
   • Views of how semantics approach the ability to talk about the world.
     • REFERENTIAL. When their basic is that we can give the meaning of the words.
     • REPRESENTATIONAL. When their emphasis is on the way that our reports are influenced.

2. Referring and non-referrin expressions

   • It distinguishes between instances when speakers use them to refer and instances when they do not.

3. Constant versus variable reference

   • Some expressions have the same referent across a range of utterances.

4. References and extensions

   • REFERENT. An expression for the thing picked out by uttering.
   • EXTENSION. An expression is the set of things which could be the referent of that expression.

5. How do names work?

   • DESCRPTION THEORY. A name is taken as a label for knownledge about the referent.
     • CASUAL THEORY. Is based on the idea that names are socially inherited or borrowed.
   • PROTOTYPES. Model of concepts which viwes them as structured.
     • Division of knownledge
       • Dictionary - type definition
       • Encyclopaedia - type entry for cultural knownledge.
       • OSTENSIVE DEFINITION. The idea that children acquire conceots by being directed to examples in the world.
         • LINGUISTIC RELATIVITY. Provides an explanation for a common experience when dealing with different languages.