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The nature of meaning, its definition, elements, and types, was discussed by philosophers Aristotle, Augustine, and Aquinas. According to them "meaning is a relationship between two sorts of things: ''signs'' and the kinds of things they ''mean'' (intend, express or signify)". One term in the relationship of meaning necessarily causes something else to come to the mind. In other words: "a sign is defined as an entity that indicates another entity to some agent for some purpose". As Augustine states, a sign is “something that shows itself to the senses and something other than itself to the mind” (''Signum est quod se ipsum sensui et praeter se aliquid animo ostendit''; ''De dial.'', 1975, 86). The types of meanings vary according to the types of the thing that is being represented. Namely: # There are the things in the world, which might have meaning; # There are things in the world that are also signs of other things in the world, and so, are always meaningful (i.e., natural signs of the physical world and ideas within the mind); # There are things that are always necessarily meaningful, such as words, and other nonverbal symbols. All subsequent inquiries emphasize some particular perspectives within the general AAA framework. The major contemporary positions of meaning come under the following partial definitions of meaning: *''Psychological theories'', exhausted by notions of thought, intention, or understanding; *''Logical theories'', involving notions such as intension, cognitive content, or sense, along with extension, reference, or denotation; *Message, content, information, or communication; *Truth conditions; *Usage, and the instructions for usage; and *Measurement, computation, or operation. ==Truth and meaning== (詳細はEncyclopedia of Philosophy, Supp., "Truth", auth: Michael Williams, p572-573 (Macmillan, 1996)〕〔Blackburn, Simon, and Simmons, Keith (eds., 1999), ''Truth'', Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. Includes papers by James, Ramsey, Russell, Tarski, and more recent work.〕 Both hybrid theories of meaning and alternative theories of meaning and truth have also been researched, and are subject to further assessment according to their respective and relative merits.〔〔Horwich, Paul, ''Truth'', (2nd edition, 1988),〕〔Field, Hartry, ''Truth and the Absence of Fact'' (2001).〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Meaning (philosophy of language)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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