Bridging the Gap between the Meaning of Natural Language and Mental Content.
Integrative psychological & behavioral science March 1, 2022 Shuquan Huo
Since Frege, mental content (conscious content) has been separated from the meaning of natural language, with mental content not regarded as the meaning of linguistic expressions. This anti-psychological view severs the connection between linguistic meaning and mental content, leading to failures in solving problems of mind. The author argues that people attach meaning to symbols through communication activities when they have mental contents, thereby forming language—a process that also achieves psychological certainty. The relationship between linguistic meaning and mental content is similar to the interdependent relationship between monetary value and the use value of commodities: without the latter, the former loses its source, and the former also affects the latter. Based on these arguments and previous theories, the paper conceives a general model of the generation of linguistic meaning.