OROMIA STATE UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT
PHILOSOPHY ASSIGNMENT

Prepared by:
Henos Berhanu

OCT, 2021
 Philosophical nature of meaning
Language is a body of standard meanings of words and the form of speech used as a means of
expressing the feeling, emotion, desire, thought etc in consistent pattern of communication. In
other definition Language is the principal method of human communication, consisting of words
used in a structured and conventional way and conveyed by speech, writing, or gesture. It is the
mere manipulation and use of symbols in order to draw attention to signified content.
Linguistic is the field of study that asks questions like: what distinguishes one particular language
from another? In 20th century Noam Chomsky, believes that human are born with an innate
understanding of what he calls “universal grammar” (an innate set of linguistic principles shared
by all humans) and a child’s exposure to a particular language just triggers this antecedent
knowledge.
Chomsky proposed a distinction between I-language and E-language that is similar but not
identical to the competence/performance distinction. "I-language" is internal language; I-
language is taken to be the object of study in linguistic theory; it is the mentally represented
linguistic knowledge a native speaker of a language has and thus a mental object. From that
perspective, most of theoretical linguistics is a branch of psychology. E-language" is external
language. E-language encompasses all other notions of what a language is, such as a body of
knowledge or behavioral habits shared by a community.
Philosophy of Language is the reasoned inquiry into the origins of language, nature of meaning
the usage and cognition of language, and the relationship between language and reality.
It poses question like “what is meaning?”, “is language learned or is it innate?” and other related
issues.
Philosophical Approaches to the nature of meaning
Meaning can be described as the content carried by the words or signs exchanged by people
when communicating through language. There are two different type of linguistic meaning which
are conceptual (i.e definition of the word themselves) and associative (i.e the individual mental
understandings of the speaker).
The major approaches to the philosophical nature of meanings are:
Idea theories: meanings are purely mental understanding of the speaker
Truth-conditional theories: condition under which an expression may be true or false.
Use theories: speech acts and particular utterances, not the expression themselves
Reference theories (semantic externalism): meaning is equivalent to those things in the word
that are actually connected to signs.
Verificationist theories: associate the meaning of a sentence with its method of verification or
falsification.
Pragmatist theories: maintain that the meaning or understanding of a sentence is determined
by the consequence of its application.
Function of language
Two linguistic functions are particularly important

 To convey information is said to have cognitive meaning

 To express or evoke feelings is said to have emotive meaning
Emotive terminologies in arguments
It allows the arguer to make value claim (it’s part of cognitive meaning that claim
something is good, bad, right, wrong, or better, worse, more important or less important than
some other thing.) about the subject matter of the argument without providing evidence.
Deficiency of cognitive meanings: vagueness and Ambiguity
A linguistic expression is said to be vague if there are borderline cases in which it is impossible to
tell if the expression applies or does not apply. The meaning is hazy, obscure and imprecise.
Linguistic ambiguity is a quality of language that makes speech or written text open to multiple
interpretations.
Form of Disputes in Logic: verbal and factual disputes
Disputes that arise over the meaning of language are called verbal disputes. In this disputes
conflict is not genuine and can be solved by coming to agreement.
Disputes arise over a disagreement about fact is called factual disputes.
The intension and Extension of terms
Terms are any words or arrangement of words that may serve as subject of statement.
Terms symbolize a meaning which are: intentional meaning(connotation) and extensional
meaning(denotation).
Intentional or connotation meaning is consisting of the qualities or attributes that the term
connotes. And the extensional or denotational meaning is consist of the member of the class that
the term denotes.
Meaning, Types and Purpose of Definitions
Definition is a technical and structural organization of words and/or terms or phrases in
explaining the meaning of a given term. It consists of two parts: definiendum (the word or group
of word that is supposed to be defined) and definiens (the word or group of word that does the
defining).

Type and purpose of definition

A stipulative definition is a type of definition in which an existing or specially created description is
assigned a new special meaning. It is used to set up secret codes

The lexical definition of a term, also known as the dictionary definition, is the definition closely
matching the meaning of the term in common usage.

A precising definition is a definition that contracts or reduces the scope of the lexical definition
of a term for a specific purpose by including additional criteria that narrow down the set of things
meeting the definition.

A theoretical definition assigns a meaning to a word by suggesting a theory that gives a certain
characterization to the entities that the term denotes.

A persuasive definition is a form of stipulative definition which purports to describe the true or
commonly accepted meaning of a term, while in reality stipulating an uncommon or altered use,
usually to support an argument for some view, or to create or alter rights, duties or crimes.

Techniques of Definition

❖ Extensional (Denotative): is a technique that assigns a meaning to a term by indicating

the member of the class that the definiendum denotes.
 Demonstrative (ostensive) definition: it conveys the meaning of a term by
pointing out examples. This type of definition is often used where the term is
difficult to define verbally, either because the words will not be understood (as
with children and new speakers of a language) or because of the nature of the
term (such as colors or sensations).
 Enumerative Definition: assign a meaning to a term by naming the members of
the class the term denotes.
 Definition by Subclass: assign a meaning to a term by naming subclasses of the
class denoted by the term.
❖ Intentional (Connotative): assign a meaning to a word by indicating the qualities or
attributes that the word connotes.
 Synonymous Definition: the definiens is a single word that connotes the same
attributes as the definiendum that the definiens is a synonym of the word beind
defined.
 Etymological Definition: relating to the study of the origin and history of
words, or of one particular word:
  Operational Definition: describe the operations (procedures, actions, or
processes) that define the concept with enough specificity such that other
investigators can replicate their research.
 Definition by Genus and Difference: it assigns a meaning to a term by identifying
a genus term and one or more difference words that, when combined, convey the
meaning of the term being defined.

Criteria for Lexical Definition

❖ A Lexical definition should conform to the standards of proper Grammer

❖ A Lexical definition should convey the essential meaning of the word being defined
❖ A Lexical definition should be neither too broad nor too narrow
❖ A Lexical definition should avoid circularity
❖ A Lexical definition should not be negative when it can be affirmative
❖ A Lexical definition should avoid figurative, obscure, vague, or ambiguous language
❖ A Lexical definition should avoid affective terminology
❖ A Lexical definition should indicate the context to which the definiens pertains