some theories of meanings are attempted to be clarified.

2.  Something that is conveyed or signified.
 The sense or significance of a word, sentence or symbol.
 The inner, symbolic or true , interpretation, value, or
message.
 A valid content
 Meaning is very vague term.
 One word can mean different things in different
languages.

4.  Referential Theory of Meaning
 Use Theory of Meaning
 Speech-act Theory of Meaning
 Hermeneutic Theory of Meaning
 Post-Modern Theory of Meaning
 Consensus theory

5.  Sign theory of De Saussure
 Deconstruction Theory.

6.  also called referentialism or referential realism,
or referential fallacy.
 claims that the meaning of a word or expression
lies in what it points out in the world.
 The object denoted by a word is called
its referent.
 expressions have meanings because they stand for
things: they mean what they stand for.
 Words are like labels.

7.  “Charlie Chaplin” denotes the person
Charlie Chaplin.
 The word “cat” stands for a member
of Felis catus.
 This Referential Theory of Meaning is
attractively simple, but it has some
problems as well.

8. “Not every word refers to an actual thing.”
some words don’t refer to anything that exists.
“Pegasus” does not denote anything real, because
there is no winged horse after all. Also, consider
the sentence “I saw nobody.” But to what does
“nobody” refer?

9. Think of words like “sake” and “behalf.” I might do
something on another’s behalf, but this “behalf”
doesn’t seem to be a thing or even an abstract
object. These nouns are meaningful, but they do
not seem to get their meaning by referring to
anything at all.

10.  This theory claims that Meaning of a word lies in
its Use.
 Conventions and traditions play an important
role.
 Not every word stands for objects.
 World of fiction, ethics, dance, music, aesthetics
etc. do not have referents.

11. Meaning of a word is its use in a language. Instead of
asking what a word means, we should ask how the
word is used. An expression's role in language
determines its sense , and the sense of a sentence is
its employment.
Accordingly, to determine the meaning of an expression
one must invoke the conditions under which it is
appropriate to use it, including the states of mind of
speakers or hearers in a given context.

12.  Introduced by Oxford philosopher J.L. Austin.
 words can be used not only to present information
but also to carry out actions.
 Speaking is a performance
 In speaking we do certain things, e.g., promise,
request, question, assertion etc.
 Locutions, Illocutions and Perlocutions

13.  the act of making a meaningful utterance.
 The act of 'saying something' in the full normal
sense.
 content of a locutionary act can be either
expressed directly or implied.
 I warn you to stop smoking.
 I warn you that cigarette smoking is dangerous

14.  speaker's intention in delivering an
utterance.
 the type of function a speaker intends to
accomplish in the course of producing
an utterance.
 e.g. pass me the glasses please.(
request, order)
 Also called illocutionary force.
 the effect a speech act is intended to
have by a speaker

15.  an action or state of mind brought about by, or as a
consequence of, saying something.
 cause physiological changes in the audience, either
in their states or behavior.
 an act is performed by saying something.
A person shouts “fire” , causes people to exit the
building.

16.  a method or principle of interpretation.
 the theory and methodology of text
interpretation, especially the interpretation
of biblical texts, wisdom literature,
and philosophical texts.
 Hermeneutic consistency" refers to the analysis of
texts to achieve a coherent explanation of them.
 The hermeneutic approach holds that the most
basic fact of social life is the meaning of an
action.

17.  Why did it happen?
 What caused it to happen?
 Why did the agents act in such a way to bring it
about?
 Social life is constituted by social actions, and
actions are meaningful to the actors and to the other
social participants. Moreover, subsequent actions are
oriented towards the meanings of prior actions; so
understanding the later action requires that we have
an interpretation of the meanings that various
participants assign to their own actions and those of
others.

18.  This approach places interpretation of
meaning at the center of social inquiry.
 The interpreter (a biographer, for example)
considers the many elements of the action,
life, or complex of actions, and attempts to
arrive at an interpretation that makes sense
of the various parts.
 there is no neutral, external standpoint from
which to objectively measure the meaning
of a system of signs or actions.

19.  interpretation begins and ends with the
given—the text or the action—and the
only evidence available for assessing the
interpretation is interior to the text itself.
 interpretations are self-confirming

20.  The Author Is Dead
 Everything is a “Text”.
 Interpretation/Re-interpretation is inevitable.
 You never read the same text twice the same way.

21.  knowledge can be contradictory.
 Because of the contextual nature of knowledge,
individuals can hold two completely incongruent
views of one subject at the same time.
 The postmodern approach to learning is founded
upon the assertion that there is not one kind of
learner, not one particular goal for learning, not one
way in which learning takes place, nor one particular
environment where learning occurs (Kilgore, 2001).

22.  Consensus theory holds that meaning and truth are
whatever is agreed upon, or in some versions, might
come to be agreed upon, by some specified group.
Such a group might include all human beings, or
a subset thereof consisting of more than one person.
 Among the current advocates of consensus theory as
a useful accounting of the concept of "truth" is the
philosopher Jürgen Habermas.
 Habermas maintains that truth is what would be
agreed upon in an ideal speech situation

23.  emotion attached to sentence is meaning
 “Children are lovely” means that you have
favorable emotions towards children. You
have favorable attitude towards them
 “Truth is beauty” has a certain attitude
towards reality
 Emotions can be negative or positive
 A gift is meaningful if you love it
 You are sentimentally attached to the
belongings of your parents.

24.  When you claim health is good, you
recommend that good health should be
achieved
 When you say smoking is bad, you
condemn smoking

25. 
the linguistic sign consists of a signified and
signifier
 What is the link between signifier and
signified?
 Word ----SIGN
 Concept ----SIGNIFIED
 Sound or image----SIGNIFIER
 A word or “SIGN” links a concept
(SIGNIFIED) with a sound or image
(SIGNIFIER)

26.  Text is not pure.
 There are hidden impurities in the text.
 Deep & surface structure.
 Prejudices by the author need to be
decentralize.
 Hidden ideologies or deep meanings
need to be discovered.