What Is Meaning

Ni Luh Sutjiati Beratha

 Introduction
There are various theories that state
about the definition of meaning. Each of
the theory is based on particular aim of
extracting it which can support our own
conception about theory of meaning.
That’s why in this session, we will answer
the questions about what is meaning.
Generally, there are three kinds of meaning.
1. Sense is the property of meaning in
abstract categories such as sentence,
lexeme, and morpheme.
2. Denotation is about the use of sense in
speaking of some particular world.
3. utterance meaning is what hearer
rationally determines that speaker
intends his meaning to convey.
Therefore, sense is the common basis for
determining other kinds of meaning.
 Meaning as Ostension
We often point and utter the name of something to ask someone to do
or to take it. In this situation, the hearer will think to find out the denotation
meaning of the word based on the setting around her or him. It will work well if
the hearer has sufficient command of the language for the denotatum to be
distinguished from verbally specific field. The hearer has to master the language
in order to understand the ostensive definition or people should know the
meaning of word in some expression.
 Meaning as Use

There are two ways to reveal the meaning of a new word by looking at
whoever uses it.

1. First, in scientific and academic circle, it shows more formal meaning

or the literal meaning of a word.
2. The second is in the informal situation or ordinary language, the hearer
has to find out the meaning of a word by their self from the context.
They can also take precedence over the formal language definition of
meaning which fails to be confirmed by usage.
To say that the meaning of a word is
determined by its use, it is not to say that
the meaning of a word is its use.
“She borrows my English book”,
1. It means that someone has borrowed the speaker’s English
book. In this example, book has a literal meaning as a
written or printed work consisting of page glued or sewn together
along one side and bound in covers.
2. “I have booked a single room for tonight”,
book doesn’t have the same meaning as before.
Here, the meaning of book is reservation. Therefore, it
means
that the speaker has made a reservation for as single room
tonight.
Meaning as
speaker’s stimulus
and hearer’s
response
 Bloomfield proclaimed linguistics as an empirical
science, and maintained that objectivity in examining
linguistic data can be safeguarded by the careful delimitation
of the aims of enquiry, and a description of the procedures for
analysis, followed by a statement of the result. Moreover, he
also stated that all statements about language should be
vulnerable (open to verification or disproof).
 In the early 1920s, Bloomfield changed his
path into a belief of behaviorist psychology. It
suggests that language behavior is a response to
some kind of observable stimulus. The theory holds
that we can predict the desired meaning of a
statement by analyzing either the stimulus given by
the speaker or the responses of the hearer..
 Bloomfield stated that ‘the speaker’s situation
will usually present a simpler aspect than the
hearer’s response; therefore we usually discuss and
define meanings in terms of a speaker’s stimulus’.
As what his statement suggested, meaning of a
statement is more likely determined by the stimulus
of the speaker.
Meaning as
concepts: the
ideational theory of
meaning
 The ideational theory of meaning is the
theory according to which meanings of words
are subjective ideas.
 Locke states that each individual has a slightly
different concept corresponding to the word, and
therefore a slightly different private meaning for it;
which may well be true.
However he did not believe that all words
represent concepts: besides words, which are names of
ideas in the mind, there are a great many others that are
made use of, to signify the connection that the mind
gives to the ideas, or propositions, one with another.
 From the linguist’s point of view, it is not satisfactory to
determine the meaning of the ideas or concepts, because it
puts meaning in individual souls.
For example, the meaning of the word "fishing". What is this
concept?
 Is this a boy with fishing rod in the boat on a sea?
 A girl netting a minnow?

In this case, the basic concept of fishing is “catching, or

trying to catch, fish". The strength of this theory is that it catches
the insight that language is an instrument for the communication
of thought.
Meaning as abstract
objects: a Platonist
conception of meaning
 Plato says that knowing and understanding, for
instance, a word circle and what a circle is, is only partly
gained through experience of circles.
Platonic forms which exist for all objects, events,
qualities are not sensible to mankind but exist in an
immortal world separate from ours.
 Sense and the Perceived
Characteristic of Denotatum
 The Relationship Between The Form of An
Expression, Its Sense and Its Denotatum

 To label intended denotatum (D) with the

expression (E) has the effect of ascribing certain
properties to D as a function of E’s sense.
Example :
If someone paints a design in white and
black and entitles it as ‘Cat’ we look for the
familiar characteristic of feline animal upon
the canvas.
 Example :
Expression

• I love chick

Sense
I love chick
• Chick (little
chicken or girl )
Denotatum
• Chick (as little chicken)
• Chick (as sexy girl)
 It is possible when the perceived
properties of phenomena are relevant to
defining the sense (meaning) of the language
expression will be perceivable by more than
one of senses (sight, touch, hearing, etc).
 CONCLUSIONS
1. Itis clear now what meaning is and how sense and
denotation are linked.
2. The sense of a language expression is an abstract
object represented in the term language expression
describing the characteristics of a prototype
denotatum. They are thought to correspond to a
concept in the mind of the language user.
3. Sense is an abstract object, and concept is a
psychological object.
4. Denotation is the use of sense of an expression to
label a phenomenon whose salient characteristics in
a given context approximate to those of a prototype
denotatum for that expression.
Thank You Very
Much for Your
Attention