2 - Denotation and mention-selection
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 March 2010
Summary
Several years ago, I introduced the semantic notion of mention-selection, which relates a term not to what it denotes but rather to parallel representations of a suitable kind. That is, it relates a term not to what it denotes but rather to those representations that it appropriately captions. Thus, the word “tree” denotes trees, but it mention-selects, that is, serves as a caption for, tree-pictures, tree-depictions, and tree-descriptions; and the word “unicorn” denotes nothing, but it mention-selects, that is, captions, unicorn-pictures, unicorn-descriptions, and unicorn-representations. In this chapter, I offer a general account of the relations between denotation and mention-selection, outlining some of the resources of the latter for interpreting aspects of language learning and some related phenomena of language.
We live in a world of symbols as well as other things, and our commerce with them is itself continually mediated by symbols. As it matures, our thought increasingly grows in its capacity to wield appropriate symbols in reflecting, acting, reasoning, and making. It is not surprising that it takes special effort to disentangle our references to things from our references to the symbols denoting them. Hence, the deliberate practice of employing special notation to mark the distinction in contexts, such as logic, where theoretical clarity is of utmost importance.
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- Information
- Symbolic WorldsArt, Science, Language, Ritual, pp. 11 - 22Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1996