Topics Language

Question Take the English word "triangle" and the German word "Dreieck". They mean the same. I have two questions: 1. Do these words express the same concept? 2. Is this concept the meaning of these words? I'm not sure, but I think that my questions concern terminology. I guess that what I want to know is if I am using the words "express", "concept" and "meaning" in the way philosophers use them.

Accepted:
April 1, 2009

Comments

Both 'tri' and 'drei' mean "3", and both 'angle' and 'eck' mean, well, "angle", so on that basis, one can argue that your English and German words "mean the same". They also surely refer to the same geometrical objects, so on that basis they also "mean the same". On the other hand, it's not at all clear that any two expressions, even in the same language, "mean the same". There are usually subtle differences between them. Take for instance 'lawyer' and 'attorney'. Probably most native English speakers use these words as more or less synonymous, though they have clearly different etymologies and once had somewhat different shades of meaning that have largely, if not entirely, been lost. Their "distribution" in the language also differs: There are times one says 'lawyer' and times one says 'attorney', even though one would be hard put to explain why. But those differences might be enough to indicate a difference in meaning.

Getting back to 'triangle' and 'Dreieck', however, there's another way in which they do not mean the same: They are from different languages, hence stand in very different logical and semantic relations to other words of their respective languages. Insofar as these relations are considered to be part of their meaning, their meanings differ.

Words like 'express', 'concept', and 'meaning' are used by philosophers in ways that are closely related to, but distinct from, their ordinary uses, and each philosopher means something slightly different by them.