A Critique On The Efforts Of Philosophy Of Language In Settling The Issues Related To The Nature Of ‘Meaning’

Abstract

Philosophy of Language is as old as Philosophy itself. However, it took its prominence in the modern era, during the 20th Century when 'Language' became central to all domains. With the 'Linguistic Turn' by Frege and Russell (1905), the Logico-Semantic approach was founded in the domain of Philosophy and it gave rise to 'Analytical Philosophy'. After the occurrence of the 'Linguistic Turn', language was studied for the sake of itself rather than for anything else, i.e., knowledge, representation of thought, and an instrument to express mental entity. Thus Frege's 'Linguistic Turn' changed the flow of philosophical concern towards matters related to the meaning of language, i.e. reference, sense, truth-value, logic, sentential meaning, intention, and use of language. However, the present paper ends by valuing Chomsky's mentalist stance to account for language. The present paper aims to provide an appraisal by reviewing the efforts of the philosophy of language in the settlement of issues related to the nature of meaning.