MILLIANISM AND ANTI-MILLIANISM

Mill taught that the signification of a word has in general two components, denotation and connotation, but that in the special case of a proper name there is no connotation, and the signification of the word is just its denotation. According as “meaning” is aligned with “connotation” or with “signification,” this doctrine comes out as “A proper name has no meaning” or as “The meaning of a proper name is just its denotation.” Today “Millianism” is most often used as a label for the latter version:

1. (1) The meaning of a name is its denotation.

An immediate consequence of (1) is the following:

1. (2) Two names with the same denotation have the same meaning.

An immediate objection to (2) is that different names for the same item may be distinguished in level (formal, familiar). Such features are very important for usage. (Imagine what a diplomatic contretemps would result if President Chirac were to write President Bush a letter beginning “Yo, Dubya!”) And with words that (unlike proper names) appear in dictionaries, such features are commonly noted in their definitions, presumably as part of the meaning of the word. It is therefore, the objector claims, reasonable to take them to be part of the meaning of a name as well.

To this objection a Millian may reply by insisting that level is a feature of usage but not of meaning.