Study On Semantic Triangle And The Theory Of Semantic Referential Function

Rational thoughts about language began with that on the relationship between language and reality, of which during the long period of primitive time, people couldn't tell the difference and took language and its referent as a whole and couldn't be separated. They equalized object with its referent or just considered name as a part of object. So the unspeakable awe or so-called word fetishism came into being. People thought language had the same power with existence. They just mixed up language and reality. This kind of phenomenon still exists in many backward nations and tribes. Language and reality were separated along with people's improved knowledge about language, which could be expounded in the disputation on the relationship between name and its referent in different countries. In China, the trend of disputation appeared and Laozi, Mengzi and Confucius expounded their thoughts one after another; in the west, the Greek philosophies had a discussion on whether the relationship between name and its referent was conventionalized or bestowed by nature. This discussion concerned a series of problems at different levels: the interactive relationship between name and its referent; the relativity of name; the independency of name. The biggest contribution to language is that it separated language from reality. The theory of referential function takes language and reality as a whole, while its counterpart holds the view that language expresses the ideas in one's mind. Some of the classical theories drawn from the discussion are still giving us the enlightenment now.After the discussion on name and its referent, the theory of semantic triangle emerged, many of which tried to solve the problem left. The founder is Freger, the analytical philosopher and logician. His paper published in 1892, holds the view that semantic meaning should be added apart from language and reality. He used a triangle to represent the three elements: symbol, meaning and the signified, expounding visually the relationship among them. Pierce, Ogden, Richard and other scholars also hold the same view. All the theories of semantic triangle have three aspects-object, concept (or idea) and word. The object is of course material, while concept and thought are no doubt spiritual. Semantic meaning, equal to concept, belong to spiritual aspect and has already come into people's mind, but its representation-phonetics-is usually objective. So in various semantic triangles, word usually refers to its phonetic form. Based on thedistinction between name and its referent, semantic triangle theory explained detail object, concept and its semantic bearer phonetics and drew a clear line in the elements in language. The relationship is also their concern: concept is the reflection of object and is generalized on the basis of objects. Concept is abstract, which should be expressed through symbols or words. The relationship between signifier and signified is arbitrary. That semantic triangle theory divided language into three parts sets up a good basis for expounding the relationship between language and the outside world. The relationship is not as simple as what the scholars in the discussion on name and its referent said, and is not a chaos as in primitive time. In semantic triangle theories, meaning, concept and ideas are put into the sphere of people's internal world, and are considered belonging to spiritual and ideological aspect, and can only be discussed in terms of mind. It is a great progress and also the biggest value and significance of the discussion before.However, for the significant issue concerning people's correct knowledge of the relationship between semantic meaning and the outside world, various limits emerged in different semantic triangle theories put forward by different scholars in different periods. In conclusion, the limits are: First, it is not explained well enough the way how the objects in the outside world come into human being's brain and become concepts or ideas, and also the relationship and variations. Then, although the basic quality...