Was ist Bedeutung?

Linguistic expressions have meanings. But what are these things that we call "meaning"? Why do linguistic expressions have the meanings they do? And how do we find out what meanings they have? These are the questions addressed in this book. To answer them, we need to examine the relationship between linguistic expressions and communication. Linguistic expressions have meanings because we use them to communicate. In doing so, we influence our recipients in a special way and evoke certain mental states in them. Ultimately, it is through these mental states that the meanings of our utterances can be explained. However, to recognize meanings, we do not need to already master a language. On the contrary: communication is more fundamental than language. We must first communicate in order to learn our mother tongue. The book demonstrates how meaning can be explained through communication and how language emerges from communication.