Individualism in Language

Paper Summary:

This paper studies language, the most important communication tool that humans use in their relationship with their fellow humans. As the paper demonstrates, words are not only the fundamental and primordial element of communication, they are also a means of connecting two individuals and giving expression and philosophical interpretation to that connection. This paper attempts to understand how that connection can be understood -- and misunderstood -- given the myriad ways language can be and is interpreted. The paper also concentrates on how the interpretation of language can alter the meaning of the actual words used in communication.

From the Paper:

"The easiest way to define the intrinsic meaning of a word would be to relate it to its definition. According to Higginbotham and his "Elucidation of meaning", "there still may be a place in lexical semantics for some contribution of definitions to meaning" . Following on Higginbotham's explanation, there are several further elucidations that need to be interpreted. The first thing that comes to mind would be whether or not a definition of a word or term is identical with the meaning of that respective term. From a philosophical perspective, this cannot be so. First of all, the definition of a term is a mean by which a word is described. There is no philosophical certitude that the respective definition of a term covers all the characteristics of the word. It simply may be that some of these are left out or that the definition covers the term only from a certain perspective."

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