FREGE'S "BEDEUTUNG " AND MILL'S "DENOTATION"

Frege refines his theory ofcontent in what is his major and most influential contribution to the philosophy oflanguage, namely his essay Über Sinn und Bedeutung (1892). There is quite a bit ofdiscussion about how to translate this title into English, particularly Frege's use of "Bedeutung " (see Frege 1997, 36-46). In ordinary Gennan, "Sinn [sense], " "Bedeutung [meaning]" and "Inhalt [content] " are used interchangeably, as are their ordinary English translations. So in ordinary Gennan the title "Über Sinn und Bedeutung " is redundant and thus it seems a bit odd to the ordinary Gennan reader, as would the title "OfSense and Meaning " in English. Since Frege aims to draw a distinction using Gennan words that ordinarily are used synonymously, his use ofthose tenns in the body ofthe essay is bound to be odd, as would be the case whenusing the synonymous English tenns "sense" and "meaning " to draw a distinction. These are all reasons for translating this essay as "On Sense and Meaning." But this is not the translation that has prevailed. The translations tha