ture-language. Ants appear
to be able to communicate a certain amount of information by means of
their antennae. Probably writing itself, which we now regard as merely
a way of representing speech, was originally an independent language,
as it has remained to this day in China. Writing seems to have consisted
originally of pictures, which gradually became conventionalized, coming
in time to represent syllables, and finally letters on the telephone
principle of "T for Tommy." But it would seem that writing nowhere
began as an attempt to represent speech it began as a direct pictorial
representation of what was to be expressed. The essence of language
lies, not in the use of this or that special means of communication,
but in the employment of fixed associations (however these may have
originated) in order that something now sensible--a spoken word, a
picture, a gesture, or what not--may call up the "idea" of something
else. Whenever this is done, what is now sensible may be called a "sign"
or "symbol," and that of which it is intended to call up the "idea" may
be called its "meaning." This is a rough outline of what constitutes
"meaning." But we must fill in the outline in various ways. And,
since we are concerned with what is called "thought," we must pay more
attention than we otherwise should do to the private as opposed to the
social use of language. Language profoundly affects our thoughts, and
it is this aspect of language that is of most importance to us in our
present inquiry. We are almost more concerned with the internal speech
that is never uttered than we are with the things said out loud to other
people.

When we ask what constitutes meaning, we are not asking what is the
meaning of this or that particular word. The word "Napoleon" means a
certain individual; but we are asking, not who is the individual meant,
but what is the relation of the word to the individual which makes the
one mean the other. But just as it is useful to realize the nature of a
word as part of the physical world, so it is useful to realize the sort
of thing that a word may mean. When we are clear both as to what a word
is in its physical aspect, and as to what sort of thing it can mean, we
are in a better position to discover the relation of the two which is
meaning.

The things that words mean differ more than words do. There are
different sorts of words, distinguished by the grammarians; and there
are logical distinctions, which ar