Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[Linh]

I read in my semantics coursebook this phrase "brief overview of the state of the art", in which definitions of linguistics, semantics and pragmatics and some other related issues are mentioned.
I don't really understand the phrase "state of the art" in this case. Could you explain it to me?

In another section of this book, they mention "theories of meaning", one of which is the so-called "referential (or denotational) theory. It says that "the meaning of an expression is what it refers to, or denotes, or stands for". At this point, I know what the theory basically means.

Anyway, when the two variations of the referential approach to meaning are presented, I have some problems in understanding it.
It says
- The first variation: the meaning of the word is what it refers to.
- The second variation indetifies the meaning of a word with the relation btn the word and its referent. --> Pls elaborate more on this and give me an example. I don't quite understand it.

So, those are my two questions relating to semantics, a hard subject for me . I really hope to receive your answers. Thank you in advance.

[Anuradha Chepur]

As you know, "state of the art" is the highest degree of development of an art or technique at a particular time. Linguistics is an area where there is constant development of the theories, so state of the art means the latest updates.

1. The referential meaning is the physical object in the world a word refers to. For instsance, the word mother, mama, mom all three refer to the same person.

2.

[Linh]

Thank you! Now I have a clearer view of those. So glad that I can rely on this forum to find answers to my questions.

[Anuradha Chepur]

You're welcome.