more on this theme | more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
English has no semantics. Learning English isn't learning a theory about what its sentences mean, it's learning how to associate its sentences with the corresponding thoughts.
Gist of Idea
English has no semantic theory, just associations between sentences and thoughts
Source
Jerry A. Fodor (Concepts:where cogn.science went wrong [1998], Ch.1)
Book Ref
Fodor,Jerry A.: 'Concepts: where cognitive science went wrong' [OUP 1998], p.9
A Reaction
This sounds remarkably close to John Locke's account of language (which I always thought was seriously underrated). Presumably we can then say that the 'thought' (or Locke's 'idea') is the meaning, which is old-fashioned real meanings.