Frege....
paper Über Sinn und Bedeutung (1892) -> most important basis of modern semanics ground of the description of semantics introduced the terms: Zeichen, Sinn, Bedeutung
Frege's and Morris' terminology in comparison
Frege Zeichen (sign) Morris sign vehicle Frege Sinn (sense) Morris designatum Frege Bedeutung (reference) Morris denotatum
What does sense, reference and sign mean?
sense: kind of givenness reference: what is given sign: proper name, common noun A sign may have a sense, but no reference! Examples: Santa Claus, the present king of France Sense of a sentence is its thought, the reference of a sentence is its truth value. Many sentences don't have a truth value, because they contain words which have no reference "Ulysses listened to the Sirens" - > thought (sense) remains the same whether Ulysses has a reference or not, but the sentence is neither true nor false.
If the reference of a sentence is its truth value, what is then?
All true sentences and all false sentences have the same reference
Is the truth value really the reference of a sentence?
The evening star shines bright. The morning star shines bright. His father was a writer. The husband of his mother was a writer. truth value doesn't change when replacing the expressions.
Classification of clauses
- clauses which express a thought as their reference, not a truth value, its sense not being a thought but only part of a thought - Dependent clauses which have a complete thought as their sense and truth value as their reference - Complex clauses, e.g. when two clauses express three thoughts
Direct discourse (ungerade Rede)
Frege
that-clauses following verbs like say, believe, conclude... that-clauses following verbs like hope, fear, doubt.. adverbial clause expressing a purpose (He closed the window so that it would not get too cold) dependent interrogative clauses (I asked him who had left)
Direct discourse (gerade Rede)
Frege
free relatives (Who wrote this letter must be insane; What you did was nasty)
