Entity theories of meaning

Ideational Theory of Meaning (John Locke) ITM

Quotations from Locke:

Ideas
" Everyone is conscious to himself that he thinks; and
when thinking is going on, the mind is engaged with ideas
that it contains."

Words and their connection with ideas

"Besides articulate sounds, therefore, man had also to be
able to use these sounds as signs of internal conceptions,
making them stand as marks of ideas in his own mind. This
was so that he could make those ideas known to others, thus
conveying thoughts from one mind to another."

Meanings are ideas that are found in the minds of the speakers of a
language.

Some of the meaning facts:

Meaningfulness: A linguistic expression/statement is meaningful if and

only if
it corresponds to/evokes an idea.
Synonymy:Two synononymous expressions must evoke the same idea.
Ambiguity:An expression corresponds to two or more ideas.

Are meanings 'ideas' or 'mental images' that are located in the minds of
the speakers?

How does sharing meaning happen? We assume that other people share
similar ideas that we would like to
denote by using language.
The assumption is important.

Objections?

Are ideas mental images? If so,

- Some words denote abstract ideas that cannot be immediately picturized.

- Some words do not evoke any mental image (e.g. dummy words, function
words like am, is, are, of, and, so,
(nouns) dint, behalf)
- Mental images are subjective and can change from person to person.

- There are words that are meaningful on their own, but in a sentence
they do not make sense like
Colorless green ideas sleeep furiously. Not only words should denote an
idea but also the way they combine
should correspond to an idea. So a meaningful sentence is not merely a
collection o words denoting individual ideas.
- Linguistic expressions cannot denote the same meaning if they are based
on ideas.
Meaning should be social phenomenon. Every speaker of a language should
understand what is meant by a word.
But if it is just about ideas, then meaning differs personally which
causes problem in a coversation.
Meaning should be something intersubjective /common. But ideas are only
subjective.

The Proposition Theory (Russell, Moore)

Meanings are abstract entities that are called propositions. They are
language-independent
and people-independent. Mental entities inhere in individuals' minds but
propositions are general.
They are eternal, and have no location in time and space. Propositions
are expressed in "that clauses".
Propositions are fundamental bearers of truth and falsity. What makes a
sentence true or false depends
on the proposition that it expresses in particular occasion.

Meaning facts
Meaningfulness:S is meaningful beacuse it has an abstract content or
proposition p,
and S stands in a special relation with its proposition.
How to distinguish a sentence that expresses a proposition from a
gibberish statement?

Ankara is the capital of Turkey. S expresses p

Mean do a the of camp. (gibberish)

Propositions as fundamental bearers of truth and falsity:

Take the sentence below:
The current president of the USA is Biden (True- 25.10.2022) (False-
19.10.2018)

Synonymy: S1 and S2 are synonymous if and only if they express the same
proposition.

Kar beyazdır.
Snow is white.
Der Schnee ist weiss.
De sneeuw is wit.

Ambiguity: S1 is ambiguous if it expresses more than one proposition.

What does it mean to understand a sentence?

You grasp the proposition the S expresses.

Why to assume propositions underlying different forms of sentences?

Noone can deny that John stole the jewellery.

John stole the jewellery.
John didn't...
Did John steal....

Underling proposition: that John stole the jewellery.

Comparing ITM and PTM

Objections

1. What type of entities are propositions having no location in time and

space?

Reply: Occam's Razor principle: The simplest explanation is usually the

most correct one. There's no better alternative
than PTM.

2. Propositions are unfamiliar to our experience about our language. It

is not like grasping an abstract
proposition.

Reply: Understanding is not merely a task of hearing the words of a

sentence. Try to apprehend a sentence produced in a
language that you can't speak. (e.g., Op de vloer ligt een lege vles
wijn)

3. It does not say anything new. It's just using a fancier jargon to say
that a statement is meaningful.
Reply: Refinement in the theory might be a solution, clarifiying the
concepts of the theory might be needed.

4. Langugage has a causal power. Understanding results in behaviour.

This aspect of language can properly be treated if a theory takes into

account the uses of linguistic expressions.

Reply: Our main concern is to explain as many meaning facts as possible,

not language's connection with human behaviour.