3 - The scope of meaning I: external context

Summary

CHAPTER PREVIEW

Linguistic expressions can only occur in particular contexts; as a result, working out what role context plays in the determination of meaning is an important part of semantic analysis. This chapter considers one essential type of context: the external or real-world context to which linguistic expressions refer.

We begin by discussing an important distinction: the distinction between what a word inherently means, and what it can be used to mean in a particular context, showing that this distinction is often not self-evident. We then distinguish the different types of task a hearer must perform to correctly understand a linguistic expression in its context (3.1).

In 3.2 we begin the treatment of external context by considering the relation between sense and reference, discussing

• the origins of this distinction in Frege;

• its applications in linguistics; and

• the nature of deictic expressions, which can be seen as a bridge between language and its surrounding external context.

In 3.3. we discuss, and reject, a possible distinction between knowledge of a word's inherent, linguistic meaning (dictionary knowledge) and knowledge of facts about the word's external context (encyclopaedic knowledge).

Meaning and context

For the purposes of deciding what a piece of language means, no utterance can be considered as a self-standing whole: words only exist within particular contexts, and we will not be able to achieve an adequate description of meaning if we don't take these contexts into account.