What are the major views concerning the study of meaning? Explain them briefly.
(1) The naming theory, the conceptualist view, contextualism, behaviorism.
(2) The naming theory says the words used in a language are taken to be labels of the objects they stand for. So words are just names or labels for things.
(3) The conceptualist view holds that there is no direct link between a linguistic form and what it refers to; they are linked through the mediation of concepts in the mind.
(4) Contextualism assumes that one can derive meaning from or reduce meaning to observable contexts.
(5) Behaviorism defines the meaning of a language form as the "situation in which the speaker utters it and the response it calls forth in the hearer". (5P92)
