Gongsun Longzi's "form": Minimal word meaning

Authors

  • Limin Liu

    College of Foreign Languages and Cultures, Sichuan University
  • Qiao Huang

    College of Foreign Languages and Cultures, Sichuan University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18063/fls.v2i1.1200

Abstract

Inspired by Gongsun Longzi's "form-naming" idea about word meaning, this paper argues that 1) the internal lexicon contains only the list of word-meaning pairs, with no additional information either as part of word meaning or as a structural level above it; 2) the meaning of word is a minimal C-Form, the identifying conceptual meaning that individuates a concept; 3) C-Form is the interface between word meaning and concept meaning; and 4) a sentence has a minimal semantic content, consisting of the minimal meanings of the words composing it, which is propositional and truth-evaluable, and contextual elements contribute nothing to the meaning of language expressions. This paper adheres to semantic minimalism, believing meanwhile that meaning holism helps in semantics inquiry, since reflection on language meaning differs from language meaning itself.

Keywords:

Gongsun Longzi; semantic minimalism; word meaning; meaning holism

References

Borg E (2012) Pursuing Meaning. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Bunin N and Yu J (2001) Dictionary of Western Philosophy: English and Chinese. Jiang Y, et al. (trans). Beijing: People’s Press House.

Cappelen H (2018) Fixing Language: An Essay on Conceptual Engineering. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Chen B (2014) On the social construction of language and meaning (in Chinese). China Social Sciences (10): 121–142.

de Almeida R (2018) Composing meaning and thinking. In: Preyer G (ed) Beyond Semantics and Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp.201–229.

Fodor J (1998) Concepts: Where Cognitive Science Went Wrong. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Fodor J (2008) LOT2: Language of Thought Revisited. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Fodor J and Lepore E (1993) Holism: A Shopper’s Guide. Cambridge: Blackwell Publishers.

Liu L (2015) Retranslation and Reinterpreation of Gongsun Longzi. Chengdu: Sichuan University Press.

Liu L and Pan X (2018) On compatibility of minimal semantic content of sentences with meaning holism. Journal of Sichuan University (6): 100–106.

Putnam H (1999) From the meaning of “meaning”. In: Baghramian M (ed) Modern Philosophy of Language. Washington D.C.: Counterpoint, pp.222–244.

Kawczynski F (2017) Is meaning holism compatible with semantic minimalism? Studia Semiotyczne (2): 53–57.

Lepore E and Stone M (2015) Imagination and Convention: Distinguishing Grammar and Inference in Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Prinz J (2002) Furnishing the mind: Concepts and their perceptual basis. Massachusetts: The MIT Press; 2002.

Qian G (2012) Concept HORSE not given by word “horse”. Foreign Languages Research (5): 1–5.

Tarski A (1999) The semantic conception of truth and the foundations of semantics. In: Baghramian M (ed). Modern Philosophy of Language. Washington D.C.: Counterpoint, pp.41–63.

Ye C (2017) Challenges against a popular explanation of semantically underdetermined sentences. World Philosophy (1): 55–62.

Downloads

How to Cite

Liu, L., & Huang, Q. (2020). Gongsun Longzi’s "form": Minimal word meaning. Forum for Linguistic Studies, 2(1). https://doi.org/10.18063/fls.v2i1.1200

Issue

Vol. 2 , Iss. 1 (October 2020)

Article Type

Article

License

Copyright © 2020 Limin Liu, Qiao Huang

Creative Commons License

This is an open access article under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.