Wittgenstein

Meaning just is use , quotes Wittgenstein in his book Philosophical Investigations implying that words do not have intrinsic meanings defined by some reference sense associated with them but their meaning is defined in the context they have been used in effective communication . Meaning of a word depends on how it is used in the language . While ascertaining the meaning of a word , one must find out the different varieties of uses the word can be put and decipher the meaning in the context with which it is used . The meaning is thus not

a thoughtful generalization based on how the word was coined but how it has been used over the ages in different ways and what it signifies within a context

This conception of use of words with meanings quite categorically rejects the earlier notion of sense and reference of meaning as something innate , something intrinsically to the word itself The 'meaning ' of words denotes a relationship as it becomes evident in the use of words in the sentences were they appear . Words are never used in isolation but they appear in a sentence form with a thought structure . The usage of words signifies a relationship applicable to a given text . The meaning of a word immediately refers to a context which gets embedded in one 's mind in a contextual sense . The definition of a word by any person is thus reflecting how he sees the usage of it and is actually a kind of mapping to...