Philosophy Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
| |||
|
| |||
| Word meaning: The meaning of words must always be distinguished from the meaning of sentences, as the use of individual words and their context have a stronger influence on their meaning. See also sentence meaning, meaning, meaning theory, context, usage theory, subsententials._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
| Author | Concept | Summary/Quotes | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Terrence W. Deacon on Word Meaning - Dictionary of Arguments
I 59 Word Meaning/Deacon: it is not the case that words differ from other signals by chance or conventionally. I 60 Tradition: assumes that there are two kinds of referential or meaningful relations: a) transparent: here a similarity between the signal (word, picture, sign) and the object addressed (icon) works >Icons. b) opaque: this resemblance is missing here. Instead, additional knowledge about the code is required. >Symbol. Icon: Refers to similarity characteristics between the sign (word, sound, image) and the object. (Transparency). >Similarity. Symbol: refers without such similarity, instead a code has to be learned. (Opacity). Signal: is simply a sign that is physically correlated with other objects without considering the semantics. >Signal, >Semantics. >Index, >Petrol gauge example, Dretske. I 62 Reference: Examples such as the > twin earth show that reference does not generally need something like meaning to be determined. >Twin Earth, >Reference, >H. Putnam. Reference/Solution/DeaconVsPutnam: what makes inanimate things such as blackening of the paper or a sign on the screen meaningful is an interpretation of which a crucial part really... I 63 (even if not everything) happens „in the head“. Reference is not intrinsic "in the" word (noise, gesture), but reference is formed by a kind of response to it. Cf. >"Meanings are not in the head"/Putnam. >Reference/Deacon, > Interpretation/Deacon, >Intrinsicness, >Words, >Subsententials, cf. >Sentences._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
Dea I T. W. Deacon The Symbolic Species: The Co-evolution of language and the Brain New York 1998 Dea II Terrence W. Deacon Incomplete Nature: How Mind Emerged from Matter New York 2013 |
||
> Counter arguments against Deacon
> Counter arguments in relation to Word Meaning
Ed. Martin Schulz, access date 2024-04-19