''The Meaning of Meaning: A Study of the Influence of Language upon Thought and of the Science of Symbolism'' (1923) is a book by C. K. Ogden and I. A. Richards. It is accompanied by two supplementary essays by

Bronisław Malinowski Bronisław Kasper Malinowski (; 7 April 1884 – 16 May 1942) was a Polish-British anthropologist and ethnologist whose writings on ethnography, social theory, and field research have exerted a lasting influence on the discipline of anthro ...

and F. G. Crookshank. The conception of the book arose during a two-hour conversation between Ogden and Richards held on a staircase in a house next to the Cavendish Laboratories at 11 pm on

Armistice Day Armistice Day, later known as Remembrance Day in the Commonwealth and Veterans Day in the United States, is commemorated every year on 11 November to mark the armistice signed between the Allies of World War I and Germany at Compiègne, Fran ...

, 1918.

Overview

The original text was published in 1923 and has been used as a textbook in many fields including

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Ling ...

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. ...

language Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of ...

, cognitive science and most recently

semantics Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy, linguistics and comput ...

and

semiotics Semiotics (also called semiotic studies) is the systematic study of sign processes ( semiosis) and meaning making. Semiosis is any activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, where a sign is defined as anything that communicates something ...

in general. The book has been in print continuously since 1982. The most recent edition is the critical edition prepared by W. Terrence Gordon as volume 3 of the 5-volume set ''C. K. Ogden & Linguistics'' (London: Routledge/Thoemmes Press, 1995). The full publication history, including serialised publication in ''The Cambridge Magazine'' prior to the first edition of the book, is in W. Terrence Gordon's, ''C. K. Ogden: a bio-bibliographical study''. Richards sets forth a contextual theory of Signs: that Words and Things are connected “through their occurrence together with things, their linkage with them in a ‘context’ that Symbols come to play that important part in our life

ven Ven may refer to: Places * Ven, Heeze-Leende, a hamlet in the Netherlands * Ven (Sweden), an island * Ven, Tajikistan, a town * VEN or Venezuela Other uses * von Economo neurons, also called ''spindle neurons'' * '' Vên'', an EP by Eluveiti ...

the source of all our power over the external world” (47). In this context system, Richards develops a tri-part semiotics—symbol, thought and

referent A referent () is a person or thing to which a name – a linguistic expression or other symbol – refers. For example, in the sentence ''Mary saw me'', the referent of the word ''Mary'' is the particular person called Mary who is being spoken o ...

with three relations between them (thought to symbol=correct, thought–referent=adequate, symbol–

reference Reference is a relationship between objects in which one object designates, or acts as a means by which to connect to or link to, another object. The first object in this relation is said to ''refer to'' the second object. It is called a '' name'' ...

=true) (11). Symbols are “those signs which men use to communicate one with another and as instruments of thought, occupy a peculiar place” (23). “All discursive symbolization involves ��weaving together of contexts into higher contexts” (220). So for a word to be understood “requires that it form a context with further experiences” (210). The book later influenced A. J. Ayer's '' Language, Truth, and Logic'', an introduction to

logical positivism Logical positivism, later called logical empiricism, and both of which together are also known as neopositivism, is a movement in Western philosophy whose central thesis was the verification principle (also known as the verifiability criterion o ...

, and both the Richards–Ogden book and the Ayer book in turn influenced Alec King and Martin Ketley in the writing of their book '' The Control of Language'', which appeared in 1939, and which influenced

C. S. Lewis Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a British writer and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Oxford University (Magdalen College, 1925–1954) and Cambridge Univer ...

in the writing of his defence of natural law and objective values, '' The Abolition of Man'' (1943).

References

1923 non-fiction books Linguistics textbooks Philosophy of language literature Philosophy of mind literature Cognitive science literature Pragmatics works Psycholinguistics works Books in semantics Books in semiotics

External links

* . book-stub {{Pragmatics-stub

Overview

See also

References

External links