SENSE & REFERENCE

Question 1

Reference

Answer 1

Linguistic meaning as ABOUTNESS

Eg. Names refer to things, people, animals, cities, planets…
» These objects/individuals are the expression’s denotation

Referent/denotation: a thing/individual which serves as a semantic meaning of a name

Sense: more basic –determines reference
Distinction proposed by philosopher Gottlob Frege

Question 2

Sense

Answer 2

Sense determines reference, it is the meaning that the rules of language determine in a predictable way

> > The Queen of France has a sense even if it does not have a referent presently
The morning star and the evening star have a different sense but the same referent (Venus)

Question 3

Denotation

Frege: Sinn vs Bedeutung

Answer 3

Sinn = sense
Bedeutung = reference, but also applies to non-referring expressions
we use DENOTATION more generally in contrast to sense
»
Denotation of a NAME = its actual referent
Extension of Suki is Marie-eve’s cat

Denotation of a PREDICATE = what the predicate applies to, what it is TRUE OF
> eg “meow” - the set of things that meow
> tall, teacher, happy are only able to denote the set of things that they describe
» Predicates are (most often) linguistically realised as verbs, but also nouns and adjectives

Denotation of a SENTENCE = Truth value of proposition it expresses
> The denotation of The door is closed is True if the door is closed, False if is not

Question 4

Meaning as truth conditions

Answer 4

Our knowledge of the relation between sentences and situations is not trivial

Maxine wants to marry a millionaire.
»We know which situations the sentences describe, and which they do not
» We know their truth conditions

> But knowing the meaning of a sentence involves more than “Shared perceptual experience of a public environment accessible to different human minds” –> knowing under which conditions it is true

> Not enough to say we know whether the proposition expressed by a sentence is actually true or false
> We know what the world must look like if the sentence is to be True

Question 5

Extension in denotational theories

Answer 5

Extension: meaning has to match reality

- positive truth value of denotation of a name, sentence, or predicate in the real world

Question 6

INTENSION in denotational theories

Answer 6

Intension: meaning does not have to match reality - includes possible worlds
> HYPOTHETICAL ways REALITY might be/have been

Intension of a NAME = its actual referrent wherever it occurs in ANY POSSIBLE WORLD

Intension of a PREDICATE = the set of things a predicate applies to/is true of IN ALL POSSIBLE WORLDS

Intension of a SENTENCE = the set of ALL WORLDS in which the sentence is true

I’ve often seen a cat without a grin, but a grin without a cat! It’s the most curious thing I ever saw in my life! (Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland)

Intension of predicate “GRIN” is set of all creatures that grin in possible worlds
> real world: “grin” not apply to cats
> Lewis Carroll’s World: cheshire cat grins. we understand this sentence because we understand and apply intensions