Areen Affan 200606440

1. Areen Affan200606440 Meaning and reference

2. Explanation of word meaning It was assumed that the relationship between a word and what it is used to imply and that between a sentence and what it is used to imply presented no problem , but quite to the contrary an explanation of these relationship ,means that the problem of what we mean when we refer to the meaning that a word or a sentence has ,is the classical problem of semantics, the problem indeed on which semantic has traditionally foundered.

3. There are three main ways in which linguists have attempted to construct explanation of meaning in natural language : 1-by defining the nature of word meaning 2- by defining the nature of the sentence meaning 3- by explaining the process of communication

4. 1-word meaning is taken as the construct in terms of which sentence meaning and communication is can be explained • 2-it is sentence meaning which is taken as basic with words characterized in terms of systematic contribution they make to the sentence meaning • 3-both sentence and word meaning are explained in term if the ways in which sentence and words are used in the act of communication. • There is a relation between words and objects

5. Meaning and referance • * the naming relation between a word and its object is most transparent with proper names the paradigm of case of name • * there is one to one corresponding between name and object • *the relation between word and object is called the relation of reference • *the meaning of a word can be explained in terms of the relation between the word and object or object to which it refers.

6. Names refer to individuals ,common nouns refer to set of individuals ,verbs refer to action adjectives refer to proprities of individuals and adverbs refer to proprieties of actions

7. There are number of reasons to believe that the theory of meaning which attempt to explain all aspects of word meaning in term of reference is mistaken : • 1-mbracing counter • 2-there is no sense in which words like and ,not ,wither refer to any thing • 3-not only there is a large and non homogenous class of exceptions ,but there are a number of anomalies in explaining more straightforward cases

8. 4- the relation of reference which holds between expressions and non existent objects will be the same ,it is hard to the theory to avoid predicting synonyms. • Opaque contexts :is the problem that arises in a large number of causes following verbs such as believe want an hope and these present a notorious problem to anyone attempt to provide an analysis of reference.

9. In proper names there is a one to one correspondence between word and object ,it is not obvious that proper names have any meaning at all • A semantic account of proper names should not be like that of other word , but if this is so ,then the original assumption of homogeneity in the semantic properties of proper nouns and other categories ,common nouns ,verbs ,adjectives ,adverbs was a mistake .

10. The solution of the problem of opacity in particular remains as open one ,and something of an issue for philosophers. But it does cast doubt on the assumption that any solution to the problem of reference automatically provides a solution to the problem of meaning.