Sunday, February 16, 2014

Signal, Response, Meaning

What, in Signal-Response Communication, a speaker 'means' by an utterance is an image of the addressee performing an action.  In contrast, what the addressee understands by the utterance is a proprioceptive image of their attempt to perform the action.  So, to a speaker, the Meaning of an Utterance does not coincide with that to an addressee, i. e. they are expressions of two irreducibly distinct perspectives on one and the same process, though, on occasion, there is appreciation from one or the other of the everse perspectives.  Plainly, each of the various established concepts of Meaning--Sense, Reference, Use, Consequence, etc.--abstracts from this fundamental discrepancy.

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