Single Idea 8171

[catalogued under 19. Language / C. Assigning Meanings / 5. Fregean Semantics]

Full Idea

Frege distinguished three components of the meaning of a sentence: sense, force and tone; he used no single term for 'linguistic meaning' in general. ...The sense is only what bears on the truth or falsity of what the sentence expresses.

Gist of Idea

Frege divided the meaning of a sentence into sense, force and tone

Source

report of Gottlob Frege (On Sense and Reference [1892]) by Michael Dummett - Thought and Reality 3

Book Reference

Dummett,Michael: 'Thought and Reality (Gifford Lectures)' [OUP 2006], p.41


A Reaction

Modern theories of meaning seem to assume that there is one item called 'meaning' which needs to be explained, but presumably this is 'strict and literal meaning', leaving the rest to pragmatics.