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| 4001 | The meaning of a word contains all its possible uses as well as its actual ones |
| Full Idea: The meaning of a word contains all its possible uses, true and false, not only its actual ones. | |||
| From: Thomas Nagel (What Does It All Mean? [1987], Ch.5) | |||
| A reaction: It has always seemed to me that meaning is not use, because you can't use it if it hasn't already got a meaning. What use is a meaningless word? |