2.Some views concerning the study of meaning

2.1.The naming theory:also called the referencial theory.The theory of meaning which relates the meaning of a word to the thing it refers to,or stands for.

★problems with the naming theory:1). The theory seems applicable to nouns only.2). There are nouns which denote things that do not exist in the real world at all.3). There are nouns that do not refer to physical objects, but abstract notions.4). Some words may have different meanings in different contexts.5). The same reference may have different names. (the morning star Vs the evening star)

2.2.meaning as concept:According to this view, there is no direct link between a linguistic form and what it refers to. The relationship between them is mediated by concept.

It is also called ideational theory（观念论）.

代表是：The Semantic Triangle advanced by Ogden and Richards.

Semantic Triangle was proposed by Ogden and Richards.They argue that the relation between a word and the thing it refers to is not direct.It is mediated by concept.

The distinction between “sense” and “reference” is comparable to that between “connotation” and “denotation”.

Sense is concerned with the inherent meaning of the linguistic form.It is the collection of all the features of the linguistic form;It is abstract and de-contextualized.It is the aspect of meaning dictionary compilers are interested in.e.g:the word “dog” is defined as “a domesticated canine mammal,occuring in many breeds that show a great variety in size and form.”This does not refer to any particular dog that exsists in the real world,but applies to any animal that meets the features described in the definition.So this is the sense of the word.

Reference means what a linguistic form refers to in the real,phisical world;it deals with the relationship between the linguistic element and the non-linguistic world of experience.If we say”The dog is barking”we must be talking about a certain dog exsistent in the situation.The word “dog” here refers to a dog known to both the speaker and the hearer.This is the reference of the word “dog ” in this particular situation.

People suggest that we should study meaning in terms of sense rather than reference.Why?

1)Every word has a sense but not every word has a reference.e.g: but,if,and do not refer to anything. “god,ghost,dragon” refer to imaginary things,which do not exsist in reality.

2) It is not convenient to explain the meaning of a word in terms of the thing it refers to.The thing a word stands for may not be at hand at the time of speaking.

3)There are cases when a reference can be expressed by more than one sense.e.g:”Evening star” and “morning star” nearly always refers to Venus.

4)Some expressions have their reference totally dependent on context,eg:I,you she.

2.3.meaning as context:is a view concerning meaning which holds that meaning should be studied in terms of situation, use, context. According to this view, one can derive meaning from or reduce meaning to observable contexts.

Contextualism: “Contextualism” is based on the presumption that one can derive meaning from or reduce meaning to observable context:The “situational context” and the “ linguistic context”.Every utterance occurs in a particular spatio-temporal situations,as the following factors are related to the situational context:(刘书P108).The linguistic context is another aspect of contextualism.It considers the probability of of one word’s co-occurrence or collocation with another,which forms part of the meaning,and an important factor in communication.