Chapter 2

Meaning, Thought & Reality

Introduction
• How can we use language to describe the world?

• a. That cat looks shady as heck.

• b. We’ve just flown back from Yellowknife.

• Identifying entities or objects or places with words is called referring

or denoting.
Introduction
• Identifying entities or objects or places with words is called referring
or denoting.

• Difference between the two?

• Denote → the relationship between a linguistic expression and the
world.
• Refer → the action of a speaker in picking out entities in the world.

• E.g. “chicken” (= category of birds, but also a specific sparrow)

Introduction
• Different types of semantic theories:

• A) referential theories:

• we can give the meaning of words and sentences by showing how

they relate to situations. Nouns, denote entities in the world and
sentences denote situations and events.
Introduction
• A) referential theories:

• we can give the meaning of words and sentences by showing how

they relate to situations. Nouns, denote entities in the world and
sentences denote situations and events.

• c. There is a Tim Horton’s on Kensington Road.

• d. There isn’t a Tim Horton’s on Kensington Road.
Introduction
• B) representational theories:

• our ability to talk about the world depends on our mental models of
it. A language is a theory about perceived reality, about the types of
things and situations in the world. A speaker can choose to view the
same situation in different ways.

• e. Max is sleeping.
• f. Max is asleep.
Introduction
• B) representational theories:

• You have a cold. (English)

• A cold has you. (Somali)
• A cold is on you. (Irish)

• emphasis on the way that our reports about reality are influenced by
the conceptual structures conventionalized in our language.
Reference
• Referring vs. non-referring expressions:

• Non-referring: if, but, and, all, very, many, etc.

• Referring: cat, apple, ship, Mary

• Referring expressions can always be used in a non-referring way

(generics).
• g. I know a professor of linguistics.
• h. Is there a professor of linguistics in this meeting?
Reference
• Constant vs. Variable reference

• i. The class meets in Craigie Hall.

• j. I told him to go there.

• Extension: the set (or category) of things which could possibly be the
referent of an expression. e.g. cat = the set of cats in the world.
Reference
• Proper names (Sue, Max, Sam)

• Description theory: A name is a label for knowledge about the

referent.

• Causal theory: names are socially inherited. In order to recognize a

referent you need one or more grounding instances.

• In either case names and natural kinds (dogs, cats, amethyst) can be
treated the same.
Reference
• Nouns and noun phrases

• Definite or indefinite uses, depending on the knowledge of the

hearer.

• k. I spoke to a student about the exam.

• l. I spoke to the student about the exam.
Reference
• Nouns and noun phrases

• Distributive use, where we focus on the individual members of a

group or collective use, when we focus on the aggregate.

• m. The people in the lift avoided each other's eyes.

• n. The people in the lift proved too heavy for the lift motor.
Reference
• Nouns and noun phrases

• Quantifiers! ☺

• o. No student likes Semantics.

• Who is “no student” referring to?

Reference
• Nouns and noun phrases

• Quantifiers! ☺

• o. No student likes Semantics.

• p. Of the entities who belong in the set of students none likes
Semantics.
• q. For all x such that x is a student, no x likes Semantics.
Reference
• Quantifiers! ☺

• predicate something of a whole class of entities, or of some subpart, for

example:

• r. Every linguist should take Semantics.

• s. Some linguists like stats.
• t. A few linguists wear silly ties.

• What about this?

• u. Every American doesn't drink coffee.
Reference as a theory of meaning
• If we claim that Semantics is just reference, we have some problems:

• What about words that do not refer? (so, if, and, etc)

• What about things that are not real?

• v. The orc kicked the goblin.

Reference as a theory of meaning
• To make matters even worse:

• w. The prime minister of Canada signed a trade agreement with the

US in 2020.
• x. Justin Trudeau signed a trade agreement with the US in 2020.

• These expressions have the same referent; do they have the same
meaning?
Reference as a theory of meaning
• OK, it can get even crazier than that.

• y. The morning star is the evening star.

• z. Venus is Venus.

• “If we can understand and use expressions that do not have a real-
world referent, and we can use different expressions to identify the
same referent, and even use two expressions without being aware
that they share the same referent, then it seems likely that meaning
and reference are not exactly the same thing.”
Mental Representations
• We can dodge a lot of very hairy problems with adding “sense” as
part of meaning to what we had with “reference”.

• The general idea is that a noun for example gains its ability to denote
because it is associated with something in the speaker's/hearer's
mind.

• We do not need to insist that everything we talk about exists in

reality; great but what are these mental representations?
Mental Representations
• Maybe they are images.

• Cat =

• But is this the “image” of “cat” we all share? Do we even share an image of
“cat”?
• What about mother? Love? Justice?
Mental Representations
• What we typically do then is to say that the meanings of words are
the concepts associated with them.

• Car = CAR
• Mother = MOTHER
• Love = LOVE

• OK, fine… What are concepts though?

Mental Representations
• Concepts have been variously described as:

• Definitions (Classical Theory of Concepts)

• Prototypes (Prototype Theory of Concepts)
• Relations among Properties (Theory Theory of Concepts)
• (~Innate) Atoms (Atomic Theory of Concepts)

• If you want to learn more about concepts go here:

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/concepts/#TheThe
Mental Representations
• How the heck does one acquire concepts then?

• One possibility is by “ostensive definition”

• For example we see a blicket and somebody says “Look, a blicket!”

• Even that is not without problems, however…

Mental Representations
• Gavagai!
Words, Concepts, and Thinking
• Linguistic Determinism (Relativity is a weaker version of that)
• vs.
• “Language” of Thought (i.e. system of representations we use to
think)

• This is a very complex subject (and huge literature) that our textbook
does not really do justice too

• I can give you extra reading if you are interested. ☺

Words, Concepts, and Thinking
• In this course we will not really deal with either

• Ontology: the nature of being and the structure of reality

• Epistemology: the nature of knowledge

• Instead: meaning relations between expressions within a language, or

across languages (linguistic solipsism)

• semantic relations like ambiguity, synonymy, contradiction, antonymy,