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Single Idea 21654
[filed under theme 19. Language / A. Nature of Meaning / 1. Meaning
]
Full Idea
The picture of language often called the "Fido"-Fido theory of meaning says every expression in natural languages refers; they simply differ in what they refer to.
Gist of Idea
The "Fido"-Fido theory of meaning says every expression in a language has a referent
Source
Thomas Hofweber (Ontology and the Ambitions of Metaphysics [2016], 08.2)
Book Ref
Hofweber,Thomas: 'Ontology and the Ambitions of Metaphysics' [OUP 2018], p.207
A Reaction
It seems obvious that at least there are syncategorematic terms like 'not' and 'or' and 'maybe' that are internal to language. I'm inclining to the opposite view of Paul Pietroski. Hofweber says if all words are names, they can't add up to truth.
Related Idea
Idea 21650
No language is semantically referential; it all occurs at the level of thought or utterance [Pietroski, by Hofweber]
The
30 ideas
with the same theme
[how one thing can represent another thing]:
19087
|
The meaning or purport of a symbol is all the rational conduct it would lead to
[Peirce]
|
6112
|
Meaning takes many different forms, depending on different logical types
[Russell]
|
23450
|
Wittgenstein rejected his earlier view that the form of language is the form of the world
[Wittgenstein, by Morris,M]
|
13978
|
Husserl and Meinong wanted objective Meanings and Propositions, as subject-matter for Logic
[Ryle]
|
8898
|
Inculcations of meanings of words rests ultimately on sensory evidence
[Quine]
|
1626
|
It is troublesome nonsense to split statements into a linguistic and a factual component
[Quine]
|
6282
|
Theory of meaning presupposes theory of understanding and reference
[Putnam]
|
2346
|
Meaning and translation (which are needed to define truth) both presuppose the notion of reference
[Putnam]
|
15667
|
To understand a statement is to know what would make it acceptable
[Habermas]
|
21932
|
'Différance' is the interwoven history of each sign
[Derrida, by Glendinning]
|
21886
|
Meanings depend on differences and contrasts
[Derrida]
|
21930
|
For Aristotle all proper nouns must have a single sense, which is the purpose of language
[Derrida]
|
21884
|
Capacity for repetitions is the hallmark of language
[Derrida]
|
21935
|
The sign is only conceivable as a movement between elusive presences
[Derrida]
|
21933
|
Writing functions even if the sender or the receiver are absent
[Derrida, by Glendinning]
|
21894
|
Madness and instability ('the demonic hyperbole') lurks in all language
[Derrida]
|
2565
|
Nature has no preferred way of being represented
[Rorty]
|
6387
|
A minimum requirement for a theory of meaning is that it include an account of truth
[Davidson]
|
3451
|
Meaning is derived intentionality
[Searle]
|
3078
|
Speech acts, communication, representation and truth form a single theory
[Harman]
|
13948
|
For any statement, there is no one meaning which any sentence asserting it must have
[Cartwright,R]
|
13950
|
People don't assert the meaning of the words they utter
[Cartwright,R]
|
2517
|
Structuralists see meaning behaviouristically, and Chomsky says nothing about it
[Katz]
|
16406
|
If you don't know what you say you can't mean it; what people say usually fits what they mean
[Stalnaker]
|
2439
|
Semantic externalism says the concept 'elm' needs no further beliefs or inferences
[Fodor]
|
2457
|
If meaning is information, that establishes the causal link between the state of the world and our beliefs
[Fodor]
|
7324
|
Explain meaning by propositional attitudes, or vice versa, or together?
[Miller,A]
|
19217
|
I don't accept that if a proposition is directly about an entity, it has a relation to the entity
[Merricks]
|
21654
|
The "Fido"-Fido theory of meaning says every expression in a language has a referent
[Hofweber]
|
14717
|
Internalist meaning is about understanding; externalist meaning is about embedding in a situation
[Schroeter]
|