The definition of Meaning
We ask the question commonly in everyday life, to something - "what does that mean?" "What does it mean?" ....
Meaning of something is the commonsensical extent of implication, of that thing.
Consider this statement -
John gave a ball to Jack.
Now, consider the word 'GAVE'.
There are 3 'levels of implication' from it.
LEVEL 1 - immediately near it - the definition of GAVE :
The physical mechanical description of the action of giving.
LEVEL 3 - far away from it - a faraway implication of GAVE :
Say, so and so changes took place in the muscle joints. OR the brain worked in a certain way to enable the action. These are very advanced. (There will be many such).
&
*LEVEL 2* - somewhere at a commonsensically decided distance from it, along the line of implication:
Ownership of ball got transferred OR location of the ball changed.
These 2 implications of LEVEL 2, are the answer to the question - 'what does it mean?' to the event - John gave a ball to Jack. They are the MEANING of the event. They are commonsense. They are at "just the right level".
Labels: Language
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