Page 510 - Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Language

Key Figures
W ithin the context of linguistic thought, John Locke is best known for proposing an empiricist, mentalist account of linguistic signification and for his skeptical conclusions regarding the efficacy of language as a vehicle of communicational understanding.
Locke was born on August 29, 1632, the eldest son of a liberal Puritan attorney who fought on the Parliamentary side in the English Civil W ar. Locke's two most important works—the Two Treatises of Government and the Essay Concerning Human Under- standing—were written in self-imposed exile from the Britain of James II and published in 1689 and 1690 following his return to Britain upon the ascent to the throne of King William and Queen Mary. He died on October 28, 1704.
Locke's position in the history of linguistic thought is derived from his discussion of language in Book III of the Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Although the Essay is primarily an epistemological treatise on the foundations of human knowledge, Locke includes a long discussion of linguistic issues because he sees language as an imperfect vehicle for the communication of knowledge as well as a poten- tially dangerous obstacle to the acquisition of new knowledge. The whole of Book III (entitled 'Of Words') is devoted to an account of the nature of verbal communication and to an analysis of the characteristics of the words used in communicational acts. Communication is described as 'the Great Con- duit' whereby speakers make their thoughts known to others. Thoughts are said to be composed of ideas, and it is by signifying, or 'standing for,' ideas that words have meaning and serve the ends of com- munication. Locke describes language and sig- nification as voluntary acts performed by individual
agents endowed with freedom of the will. That is, in communicating my ideas I voluntarily produce words as signs of those ideas. Which idea one such word signifies depends on my voluntary act of using that word to stand for an idea in my mind. Naturally, then, only I can ultimately know which of the 'private' ideas in my mind are signified by the words I use. Moreover, since the vast majority of my ideas are formed by similarly voluntary and private mental operations, there are no grounds for assuming that the ideas I have in my mind are the same as those in another person's mind. For instance, even though we (I and you, the reader) both use the word justice we cannot assume that the idea (in your mind) which you use that word to stand for is the same as the idea (in my mind) which I signify by the same word. Conse- quently, the conclusion of Locke's assessment of words and signification is that, while language may serve the 'vulgar' purposes of ordinary conversation well enough, it is not adequate to guarantee the true communication of thoughts.
The Essay is also known for Locke's identification of sSmeidtikS, or 'the doctrine of signs,' as one of the three branches of science.
See also: Abstract Ideas; Meaning: Philosophical Theories; Natural Kinds.
Bibliography
Harris R, Taylor T 1997 Landmarks in Linguistic Thought: The Western Traditionfrom Socrates to Saussure, 2nd edn. Routledge, London
Kretzmann N 1977 The main thesis of Locke's semantic theory. In: Tipton I (ed.) 1977 Locke on Human Under- standing. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Locke J 1690An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Printed 1979 for Thomas Basett, Clarendon Press, Oxford
The origin and development of the philosophy of lan- guage in the Middle Ages—roughly speaking, in the period between Boethius (480-524) and John Mair (1467/69-1550)—was closely linked to the translation and interpretation of ancient texts. Most theories on the semantics of terms and propositions grew out of commentaries on such authoritative books. These the- ories relied on the basic assumption that language,
thought, and reality were naturally related to each other. Like their ancient predecessors, the medievals considered language to be not only an instrument of communication, but also a system of signs rep- resenting the structure of mental and extramental reality. Thus, the analysis of the semantic function of language was supposed to provide a deeper under- standing of reality itself.
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Locke, John T. J. Taylor
Medieval Philosophy of Language D. Perler