LING 3P94 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Justin Trudeau, Prototype Theory, Lexical Semantics
Document Summary
The meaning of a word/phrase is whatever it refers to in the world. Ex bill gates is specific reference, billionaire is generic reference. Meaningful words with hardly identifiable abstract referents, such as justice, infinity. Imaginary words with no real-world referents, such as unicorn. Words with same referent are not always substitutable in a sentence. If meaning = referent, then words with same referent must have same meaning, and if they have same meaning then they can replace each other. This is not the case so meaning cannot equal reference. Extension is a set of entities a ord picks out in the world (all referents) Intension is the inherent sense of a word or the concept invoked by the word (the dictionary definition) Capital of bc: extension is victoria, intension is a city containing the provincial legislature of b. c. Prime minister of canada: extension is justin trudeau, intension is the.
