Ogden and Richards published a full book "The Meaning of Meaning" in 1923. It is also a subject of a lot of research by a broad spectrum of scholars & scientists. But they have identified only 3 elements of meaning but we found FIVE. Hence, PENTAGON of Meaning moving from their TRIANGLE of Meaning. The five elements are: Speaker S, Concept X in her mind, Text T to express X, Listener L, who creates Concept X' from T. Out of these only S, T and L are public, open for observation. The concepts X and X' are private separately to S and L and the meaning is X for S and X' for L. That is subject of this PPT. It is elaborated and discussed. From here we need to arrive at common and open meaning of T. We have another PPT for that. There is a full paper Machine Mediated Meaning for Semantic Interoperability, which you can find on slideshare soon. Please leave a comment.

1. Pentagon of MEANING
Putcha V. Narasimham
Knowledge Enabler Systems
putchavn@yahoo.com

2. This is also Section 4 of
Semantic Web:
Dealing with Knowledge & Meaning
Putcha V. Narasimham
Knowledge Enabler Systems
putchavn@yahoo.com

3. Pentagon of MEANING
22 JAN 14
Pentagon of MEANING
Meaning is a FIVE ELEMENT concept--- 1923 book identifies only
THREE. Inherently meaning of an expression (one of the 5 elements)
is subjective and private to speaker and listener ( 2 more elements)..
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4. What is the meaning of ……

Consider the following

1: cat
Pentagon of MEANING

22 JAN 14
2: billi or pilli (or better still marjalam)
These are Hindi, Telugu & Sanskrit words for cat
2: a2 + 2ab + b2
 Is 2 the meaning of 1 or vice versa?

1: (a+b)2

Think …..
Ms Tabasum ( B Tech 3 year) of Muffackhram Jah
College of Engineering & Technology, Hyderabad
gave the correct answer with reasons in a
seminar on 14 DEC 13. Very rare and remarkable
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5. Wrong view of meaning & correction
Pentagon of MEANING

22 JAN 14



Most people
think it is true
but
NO, Not True
Then?
See the
possibilities




In the case of cat and billi
We can only say they are equivalent
labels referring to a specific animal
The concept of referent was welldefined through Meaning Triangle
By Ogden and Richard 1910-1923
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6. Meaning Triangle: Thought, Word & Thing
Thought or Reference
meaning

Pentagon of MEANING

22 JAN 14


Stands for
Word
Symbol
Not direct
Object
Thing or Referent

Ogden & Richard say in
The Meaning of Meaning (1923)
The need for meaning has arisen
Because humans (live beings) use
Signs or symbols for
communications / interactions
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7. 22 JAN 14



A visual grimace, gesture, or
movement
An audible utterance, sound, music
Natural language speech or
Our
Natural language text
Focus
Objects,
 Phenomena
-------------------- Concepts
 Emotions

Mental
Pentagon of MEANING

Concrete
Typical Signs or Symbols and Referents
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8. Meaning of Symbol is Referent
Thought or Reference
meaning


Pentagon of MEANING

22 JAN 14

Stands for
Word
Symbol
Is
Object

Referent 
The meaning of a sign or symbol
Is what they referred to
When the symbol is Natural
Language Text—NLT
The symbols tend to be complex
And referent is difficult to identify
Correctly and precisely
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9. Meaning: Significance Created in Mind

Pentagon of MEANING

22 JAN 14
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

According to dictionary
It is valid through NOT complete
Essentially meaning is a concept
Ogden and Richard identified
Three Elements of it
We see there are FIVE ELEMENTS

So we move from


Triangle of
meaning to
Pentagon of
meaning
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10. The FIVE ELEMENTS of Meaning
Internal
1. The original concept X in the
22 JAN 14
3.
4.
5.
External
X
Text T
External
Pentagon of MEANING
2.
mind of
Speaker S or writer who
Expresses X in Text T of a
natural language
Listener L receives T & forms
Some concept X’ in his mind
Internal
External
S
Internal
L
X’
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11. Five Elements together create Meaning
Internal
Pentagon of MEANING
Internal
22 JAN 14
X

External
Text T

S
Internal
X’
L

Meaning is just not
interpretation of T in
isolation
Meaning is dependent
on all the FIVE Elements
Let’s study how they
together determine the
meaning
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12. Speaker and Expression of Concept X
Internal
Pentagon of MEANING
S
22 JAN 14

Speaker S:


X
Internal
Text T
External



X
Has concept X
Expresses X in
Text T of some
language
T is not X
X may be
multimodal
Speaker S
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13. Listener creates her own Meaning X’ of T
22 JAN 14
Listener L
Listener gets T &
External
Constructs X’ privately
Text T
& Subjectively
 To her, T MEANS X’
 X’ is often NOT X, both
L
being private
Listener  NO direct way to know
X’
X & X’

Internal
Pentagon of MEANING
x’
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14. Subjective Nature of Meaning
x’
Pentagon of MEANING
X’ is a concept, an idea in mind

22 JAN 14

It is private & personal
It is the only meaning listener can get
Known only to the individual listener
So meaning is subjective



Listener
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15. Meaning: Generated or recalled, NOT given
x’

Text (signals) which encode X

Pentagon of MEANING

22 JAN 14

Listener

Can be transmitted but
X & X’ remain as concepts with S or L
Concepts or Meaning have to be
GENERATED from T mentally &
privately or RECALLED from memory
Concepts as such cannot be GIVEN
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16. Five Elements: S, X, T, L and X’
Pentagon of MEANING
X
22 JAN 14
1-S thinks 2-X
& presents it as 3-T
4-L gets T & creates
5-X’ in her mind
private
S
Open &
Common
Text T
L
X’
private
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17. Relating S, X, T, L and X’

Pentagon of MEANING

22 JAN 14


X & X’ are private to S and L
They must be brought out
into open common view
To share and make meaning
common and public
Explained in the PPT: Shared
and Machine Mediated
Meaning
X
private
S
Open &
Common
Text T
L
X’
private
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18. Conclusion: Pentagon of Meaning


Pentagon of MEANING

22 JAN 14


Identified 5 elements of meaning
Used them to define meaning in
human context
Discussed subjective nature of
meaning and
The need to share private
concepts to arrive at common
meaning
Did not discuss ‘understanding’
1-S thinks 2-X
& presents it as 3-T
4-L gets T & creates
5-X’ in her mind
Keep
Going
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