This is an introduction to the topic "Reference and Meaning" as one of the issues/concerns of philosophy of language. The thoughts of John Locke is also included here. The reference for this material is "Philosophy of Language" by Hornsby and Longworth.

1. Locke, Mill, Frege, Wittgenstein

2. Mundane Fact of language:
“When people interrelate with one another by
producing and hearing sounds, they are using
words which have meaning.”
Questions:
How can sounds achieve so much?
What account should we give of words having
meaning?
Explore answers of John Locke, John Stuart Mill and
Gottlob Frege

3.  Two possible answers:
◦ Words stand for things.
◦ Words are used to communicate.
1. If words stand for things, then presumably they
often stand for real things. The first answer
connects language with reality.
-seems actually suited only to words that are proper
names: Shy, Philippines, Philosophy Department
Office
-what about words like ‘cat’ ‘pretty’ ‘eat’ or words like
‘and’ ‘or’ ‘by’

4.  Different approaches for words’
meaningfulness:
◦ Frege: think abour words in relation to one
another—to think of words as combining one with
another to make up meaningful sentences
◦ Locke: did not accept that it is the role of words to
stand for real things
◦ Mill: presented his thoughts on the different
behaviours of different sorts of words but did not
envisage the kind of systematic theory of words’
combination that Frege introduced

5. 2. Words are used to communicate.
When you use words, you get your thoughts across
to others, and when others use words, they get
their thoughts across to you.
But, words can be used to communicate because
they have meaning. We have to know what words
mean in order to think about how they are used
in communication.
Chapter 2 will explore the different approaches in
which questions about what speakers do or
intend are treated as more fundamental than
questions about what words do.

6.  One of the most difficult tasks for philosophy
of language is to bring the fact that people
use words and sentences to convey their
thoughts to one another into the right
relation with the fact that words and
sentences make connections with reality.
 In Locke, we shall discover some of the
difficulties there are in finding appropriate
connections between words and real things
when words are treated as if they got their
meanings in the minds of individual thinkers.

7.  In Mill and Frege, we shall discover that even
when it comes to proper names, which can
seem to be words of which a very simple
account might be given, there are questions
about their role in communication.
 The focus here: the particular case of proper
names:
 How should proper names be treated?
 Is standing for things all that there is to be
said about them?

8.  Chapter 1: Of Words or Language in General
1. Man fitted to form articulate sounds.
-as a sociable creature, language is the great instrument
and common tie of man with society
-our organs are fashioned to frame articulate sounds
which we call words
2. To use these sounds as signs of ideas.
-use sounds as signs of internal conceptions;
- and to make them stand as marks for ideas within his
own mind
-a person’s ideas are not accessible to other people, but a
person can communicate her thoughts to others using
the sounds of speech: her words are signs standing for
her ideas, and others can hear her words

9. 3. To make them general signs.
-the use of general terms: one word was made to mark
a multitude of particular existences;
-general names which made to stand for general ideas
4. To make them signify the absence of
positive ideas.
-words that signify the want or absence of some ideas,
simple or complex, or all ideas together (e.g. nihil,
ignorance, barrenness)
-not to signify no ideas but that they relate to positive
ideas and signify their absence*

10. Chapter 2: Of the Signification of Words
2. Words, in their immediate signification, are
the sensible signs of his ideas who use them.
Locke thinks that words must be signs of the
speaker’s ideas, because words are
significant, and there is nothing else in which
their significance could reside.
2 claims here:
1. That words are ‘voluntary signs;’
“every man has [an] inviolable liberty to make
words stand for what ideas he pleases”
What’s the critique for this claim?

11.  Even if words are not voluntary, it might still
be allowed that they are ‘arbitrary.’
What is the difference between voluntariness
and arbitrariness? (f)
So Locke might acknowledge that there is one
respect in which one isn’t free to use words
exactly as one pleases: one must use them as
others do if one is going to be understood.

12. 2. That one can make a word a sign for
something only if that something is
immediately present to one and known to
one.
 What is the critique to this claim?
1. A person could have immediate knowledge
of something in the world (as opposed to the
mind).
2. Some of the contents of a person’s mind
need to be explained not just in terms of the
person’s own individual sense experience
but of their interactions with other people

13.  Can one have immediate knowledge of
something in the world based on his own
sense experience only? Or are the contents of
a person’s mind due to his/her interactions
with other people too?
 E.g. how a child’s mind is formed

14.  A child’s mind is formed, and its contents are
gained, as the child grows up and learns a
language. It would seem appropriate to think
about word’s meanings in connection with
concepts people share with one another
rather than in connection with the ideas of
each isolated speaker.

15.  Problems with ‘general signs’ will be
discussed by Mill
1. An exception to Locke’s general principle
(words stand for ideas):
a. ‘particles’: signify the connection that the
Mind gives to ideas, one with another (e.g.
and, not, but)
b. Words signifying the absence of positive
ideas (e.g. ignorance and barrenness)

16.  Difficulties:
a. What exactly is involved/the scope of some
word’s signifying the absence of ideas? (Will
this include ‘rejection’? ‘fruitless’?
‘loneliness’? ‘scarcity’?)
b. What exactly are words standing for a
positive idea?
Do I really know the meaning of the word ‘cold’
or do I just rely on what the English meaning
of the word ‘cold’ is?

17. For Locke, I must first have an idea on my
mind, then attach a sound to it, then go on to
mean something by that sound.
What does Locke really think to be in our
minds when we take our words to be
meaningful?

18. 2. People wrongly supposes that
words might stand for ideas in
other people’s mind (vs. my
mind) and they stand for things
(vs. ideas: ‘whatsoever is the
object of understanding when a
man thinks’) outside my mind.
For Locke, it looks as if the hearer
could only surmise that the
ideas he has when he hears the
word is an idea of the same sort
as the one whom the speaker
chose to attach the word to. And
to further surmise that it is the
same thing/person whom both
the speaker and himself then
have an idea of.
Is this really always the case when
we communicate with another?

19. 3. Words are often used without signification.
e.g. Messages referring to people/ things you do not
have any idea about.
If you do not have any idea what the words are
referring to, does that mean that the words in such
cases are ‘nothing but…significant noise?’

20.  When Locke speaks of
‘insignificant noise’, he is
speaking of words applied
without any ‘constant
connection’ between sound
and idea.
However, usually, when a
particular word is used from
occasion to occasion, there
is a regular match between
the idea of its speaker and
the idea of those who hear
the speaker.
Speakers’ and hearers’ may be
mismatched, but this does
not necessarily destroy the
words’ significance.

21.  We have questioned whether the existence of the
regular matches (that Locke takes for granted) can
really be taken for granted by someone who thinks
that it is up to people in the role of speaker to make
a sound a mark of their own idea;
 Recognize that Locke wants to allow that there are
regularities of meanings; and that what he say about
the arbitrariness of the relation between sounds and
meanings seem correct; and
 His view that words are name of ideas is no longer
popular (Mill’s view: “When I use a name for the
prupose of expressing a belief, it is a belief
concerning the thing itself, not concerning my idea of
it.”)

22.  Read ‘Of Names’ by John Stuart Mill
 Answer these questions in preparation for the
oral recitation:
◦ How did Mill characterize the three principal
divisions among names that he makes in
the extract?
◦ What is the distinction between general
names and proper names?

23. 1. The thoughts of your chosen philosopher:
1. The question/issue he wants to answer
2. His answer (thesis)
3. Explanation and Supports for his thoughts
2. Your evaluation of his thought:
1. Commendable points
2. Questionable points
3. Your own recommendation(s):
1. Your own answer to the question
2. Your own design/system