Meaning and Reference: Inseparable Means of Understanding Language

Abstract

Language is the most used tool of communication, especially in human interaction. However, language remains very delicate in one way or another. If it is properly used, it generates harmonious human interaction; but if it is misused, it creates frictions. Thus, for one to better employ a particular language, one needs to understand it, which implies inspecting various rubrics that guide the entire linguistic enterprise. Such enterprise mainly involves teachers, learners, philosophers and users of language. This paper focuses on the role of philosophers of language in the linguistic venture. It considers their meticulous scrutiny of the use of languages in search for better communication. In such a project, philosophers of language tackle on various challenging topics, including meaning and reference. Following their discussions about meaning and reference, this paper aims at investigating the best way of teaching, learning, understanding and using languages, especially the new ones. In every intellectual field, when one understands something, one will prove it in the way he/she uses it in her subsequent daily transactions. This paper shall appraise how meaning and reference contribute in generating a better use of languages. Meaning and reference shall also be examined as being the main indexes of acquiring knowledge in numerous academic spheres on the one hand; and psychological and social entities on the other. All this project will be undertaken in the effort to demonstrate that meaning and reference facilitate the understanding of languages if they are used jointly, and harden it if they are used as separate entities in any linguistic enterprise.