Sense  and Reference

Reference

Reference deals with the relationship between the linguistic elements, words, sentences, etc, and the non-linguistic world of experience.

Criterion:

 (a) Two expressions that entail each other have the same reference.

 (b) If we have an expression A containing an expression B and we replace B in A with  an expression C that has the same reference as B, the reference of A does not change.  

ex: a. the sister of John

      b. the daughter of John's parents.  

 A referential NP A entails another NP B whenever the sentence  "x is A" entails  "x is  B"

ex: "x is John's sister" and "x is the daughter of John's parents" entail each other.

Thus NPs (1a) and(1b) entail each other.

ex: a. the sister of John

    b. the sister of Mary's husband.

Assume: John is Mary's husband. John and Mary's husband have the same reference.

        (b) also has same references:

Sense

 (1) The Morning star is the Evening Star.

 (2) The Morning Star is the Morning Star

The two expressions 'the morning star' and 'the evening star' had the same reference, since they each referred to the same planet. But they could not be said to have the same sense.

(2) would be tautologous, or analytic, but (1) is informative: That is, (1) can make the hearer aware of some fact of which he was not previously aware and which he could not derive simple from his understanding of the meaning of the sentence. It follows that 'the morning star' and 'the evening star' are not synonymous. that is, they do not have the same sense.

FREGE'S OWN THEORY

1. GEDENKE: The CONTENT of a thought must be distinguished from the PROCESS, the act of thinking it.

2. SIGNS: Words and thoughts are not images of what they represent. "MEANING" is not the same as an IMAGE. Think of "2"? What do you think of? Some people (such as a blind professor of mine) have images for numbers that look like "space-crystal;" others (myself, for instance) have images for numbers which are positional, such as positions on the face of a clock. The mental image we form is irrelevant tothe MEANING of the sign.

3. SINNund BEDEUTING :

Sense and Reference. We express the world by signs, but how do they designate? "Stule," "chaise," "chair" all designate the same thing, not because of their sound, but because of the meaning they share. Also deux, zwei, two. What is this common "meaning" designated by different words? Both words and ideas may serve as signs, but they can do this only because each of them has a "sense." It is only because a sign has a sense (SINN) that it is capable of refering (BEDEUTUNG) to what it designates.

For example:

Morning star = etoile matinale (Different words but same sense #1)

Evening star = etoile du soir (Different words but same sense #2)

          Yet senses #1 & #2 both REFER to Venus.

Morning star    etoile matinale     Evening star    etoile du soir

      \           /                   \             /

       \         /                     \           /

        \       /                       \         /

         SINN #1                         SINN # 2

              \                          /

               \                        /

                \                      /

                  same REFERENT (Venus)

Frege's thesis:

It is only THROUGH a sense that a sign can refer to an object. So, we must distinguish between:

PROCESS and GEDENKE

and between

SINN and BEDEUTUNG