1 Introduction: Terminological Remarks

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1Introduction Terminological Remarks
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Language, Mind, World

• Famous triangle
• Language
• Mind World
• How does the mind relate to the world?
• How does language relate to the world?
• How does language relates to the mind?

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• Successful Communication
• Two people succeed in communicating insofar as
  they understand each others.
• What does it mean to understand a message?
• To share the ideas, concepts, thoughts,

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• Natural meaning vs. non-natural meaning
• smoke means fire vs. dog means dog.
• Linguistic communication rests on non-natural
  (conventional) meaning.

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Some Terminology

• Reference
• the relation between a word and what it stands
  for.
• Referent
• the individual (object) designated by a word.

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• Subject/Predicate distinction NP/VP
• The subject refers/stands for/designates an
  object.
• while
• the predicate stands for/designates a property
  (a concept for Frege).

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• Extension (denotation)
• the extension of a predicate is the class of all
  the objects possessing the property expressed by
  the predicate.
• Intension (connotation)
• it refers to the meaning or characteristics
  encompassed by a given word, sometimes expressed
  by a definition.

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• Coreference
• two singular terms are coreferential if they
  designate the same object (cf. anaphora).
• Coextension
• two general terms or predicates are
  coextensional if they apply to the same class of
  objects.

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• Singular term
• a word designating an object
• E.g.
• proper names London, John,
• indexicals (e.g. I, them, this, my
  pen),
• definite descriptions ?? (e.g. the director,
  the capital of Canada, Janes sister ).
• Can be the subject of a subject/predicate
  sentence, i.e. a NP.

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• General term
• a word which is predicable of more than one
  object. It can be the predicate of a
  subject/predicate sentence, i.e. a VP.
• E.g. Fido is a mammal, London is a city,
  Sue is a woman,
• S/P, Fa, S
• NP VP

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• Use/mention distinction
• (1) dogs have 4 legs
• (2) dogs has 4 letter
• (3) dogs is a word
• (4) dogs eat bones

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• Natural vs. non-natural meaning (Grice)
• "Those spots mean measles" or "A shiny coat in a
  dog means health
• vs.
• "Those three rings on the bell (of the bus) mean
  that the bus is full" or "By saying that the
  child looked guilty, he meant that the child was
  in fact guilty".

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• Speaker meaning vs. literal meaning (Grice)
• the conventional meaning possessed by a sentence
  
• vs.
• what a speaker means (intends to communicate) in
  using a sentence.
• E.g. the literal meaning of It is cold is
  that it is cold, but a speaker in using it can
  mean Close the window.

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• But one cannot play the Humpty-Dumpy game.
• Conversational Implicature (Grice)
• what a speaker means in using some words. It is
  what matters in communication.