MEANING, THOUGHT,

AND REALITY
By: Elisa Octavia
Amy Amelia M
Maysilia Furifah R
Masyita Devi M
INTRODUCTION
Theories of reference
• Referential (denotational) approach

Word Object

• Representational approach
Sense

Word Word
Types of reference
• Referring and non-referring expression
• Constant and variable reference
• Referents and extensions
Types of reference
• Referring and non-referring expression
1. Expression which can never be used to refer
2. Expression which can be used to refer or not, depending on the kind
of sentence they occur in
For example :
 John is a teacher
 John is a teacher whom I met in college
Types of reference
• Constant and variable reference
For example :
 Eiffel Tower is named after the engineer, Gustave Eiffel
 She wrote a letter for me
Types of reference
• Referents and extensions
For example :
 Capital city of Indonesia is Jakarta
 Other areas in Indonesia such as province of East Kalimantan,
East Java or others.
Names
• Names are labels for people places and so on that carry
speaker’s assumptions
For example :
 He looks just like Brad Pitt
Nouns and noun phrases
• Can be used to refer or operate like names
• Can also form definite descriptions
• Can also be used to refer to groups or individual
Reference as a Theory of Meaning
The simplest versions as a theory of semantics.
Reference

To give a meaning of one shows what it denotes

Reference picks out elements in the real
world.

Proper names Individuals

Common names Sets of individuals
Verbs Denotes Actions
Adjectives Properties of individuals
Adverbs Properties of actions
3 Problems of Reference as Theory of Meaning
Ruth Kempson (1977:13)

1. Many words have no meaning

• e.g. so, not, very, but, of is very difficult to find their real-world referent

2. Many nominals expressions used by speakers do not have reference

that exists or has ever existed
• e.g. In the painting, I ride a unicorn

3. There’s not always one-to-one correspondence between a linguistic

expression and the item that we want to identify
• e.g.
• The morning star
• The evening star
 MENTAL
REPRESENTATION
 Mental Representations
Sense
Associated with speaker’s/hearer’s mind.

Mental entities / representations are images

E.g.
1. One resemblance image : Paris, and Batman
2. Variation images (usually happens in common nouns) : triangle, car, animals
Concepts
1. What form can we assign to concepts?
2. How do children acquire them, along with their linguistic
labels?
 What form can we assign to concepts?
1. Lexicalized
E.g. : Selfie = a self-portrait photography

2. Described by phrases
E.g. : On the shopping, I saw a tool for compacting dead leaves into garden
sanctuary.
How do children acquire them, along with their
linguistic labels?
Children acquiring concepts differ from the concepts of adults.

Underextending e.g. : dog > their own pet

Children
concepts
e.g. : daddy > every male
Overextending
adults
Necessary and Sufficient Condition
Traditional approach to describe concept by using sets of
necessary and sufficient condition
Example :
Michelle is a woman if and only if she is:
• Human
• Adult Set of Attributes/Characteristics
• Female
Major Problem

An animal
Has four legs
Stripped in black and white
Herbivore
Prototype
Elanor Rosch and co-worker propose the notion of Prototype
A model of concept which views concepts as structured so that
there are central or typical members of a category, but then a
shading off into less typical or peripheral members.
Semantic Features
Parameter of Bird
• Laying egg
• Flying
• Having wings
• Has a beak
• Has feathers
Relation between Concepts
Conceptual hierarchies
contain 3 levels of generality

Superordinate
Level

Basic Level

Each level differ in their balance

between informativeness and Subordiante Level
usefulness
Example
Superordinate
Level

Basic Level

Subordiante Level
How do we acquire concepts?

Ostensive definition Example: GAVAGAI

 WORDS,
CONCEPTS AND
THINKING
Words, Concepts and Thinking

Linguistic Relativity

The language of thought Hypothesis

Linguistic Relativity
(Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf)

It provides an explanation for common experience

when dealing with different language.

Words for social interactions and customs will vary

between cultures.

For example:

Pourpree Purple
French English
 put on putting on shirt putting on trouser

kiru Shatsu o kite itu Zubon on kiru

Each language, from the point of view of another language, may be arbitrary in its
classification; that what appears as asingle simple idea in one language may be
characterized by a series of distinct phonetic groups in another. (Boas 1966: 22)
The Language of Thought Hypothesis
The idea of linguistic relativity is rejected by many linguists and
researchers in cognitive science

Thinking without language

• Thinking and language are not the same thing.

• People from different linguistic communities perform reasoning or other
cognitive tasks in any very different ways.

Language underspecifies meaning

• Speakers compress their thoughts rather than state explicitly what they
mean.

Human beings have essenally the same cognitive architecture and mental
processes, even thtiough they speak different languages.
Thought and Reality
1. The world as it really is

2. The world as not it really is

•Only language is the proper object of study for

linguists
•Issues of mental representations and the existence of
reality are the best left to psychologist and
philosophers.