What is it for marks or sounds to have meaning, and what is it for someone to mean something in producing them? Answering these and related questions, Schiffer explores communication, speech acts, convention, and the meaning of linguistic items in this reissue of a seminal work on the foundations of meaning. A new introduction takes account of recent developments and places his theory in a broader context.

Words without Meaning (Contemporary Philosophical Monographs)
by Christopher Gauker (Author) "According to the received view of linguistic communication, the central function of language is to enable a speaker to reveal his or her thoughts to..."

Anyone who wants to write clear and accurate English, using the correct word in a particular context, will find this book helpful, and a useful companion to the Easier English Basic Dictionary.
Groups of similar words are arranged alphabetically under the main word for the particular meaning being illustrated, so words meaning ‘big’ are given at big. The ways in which these similar words are used in different situations are compared. Words with an opposite meaning to the main meaning being illustrated (known as ‘antonyms’) are also given.

How did the cosmos, and our own special part of it, come to be? How did life emerge and how did we arise within it? What can we say about the essential nature of the physical world? What can be said about the physical basis of consciousness? What can science tell or not tell us about the nature and origin of physical and biological reality?

Science and Certainty clears away the many misunderstandings surrounding these questions. The book addresses why certain areas of science cause concern to many people today in particular, those which seem to have implications for the meaning of human existence, and for our significance on this planet and in the universe as a whole. It also examines the tension that can exist between scientific and religious belief systems.

Science and Certainty offers an account of what science does, in fact, ask us to believe about the most fundamental aspects of reality and, therefore, the implications of accepting the scientific world view. The author also includes a historical and philosophical background to a number of environmental issues and argues that it is only through science that we can hope to solve these problems.

This book will appeal to popular science readers, those with an interest in the environment and the implications of science for the meaning of human existence, as well as students of environmental studies, philosophy, ethics and theology.

This dictionary may be small in stature, but it will be a big help to you if you are learning English. "NTC's Super-Mini English Dictionary" contains a comprehensive word list yet is compact enough to fit in your pocket. You will have access to the spelling, pronunciation, part of speech, meaning, and irregular forms of more than 7,500 of the most common and basic words used in English.