Article Frege: The Theory of Meaning Concerning Proper Names

ottlob Frege may be considered as the first intellectual giant in the Philosophy of Language. He was the first to raise the issue of meaning by formulating an organized theory of meaning for a part of natural language as the theory of meaning is at the core of philosophy of language. He emphasizes that the meaning of a sentence directly depends on the meaning of its constituent parts. That is why he has to dissect the internal structure of a sentence or complex expressions provided by a logical syntax, while the truth value of such sentences may be revealed by logical semantics which can be put forward by treating these sentences as a whole. Hence, in order to move into the Frege’s theory of meaning deeply, the treatment of sentences will have to be taken both semantically and syntactically, as he did not propose a sharp distinction between syntactic and semantic treatment of sentences. He is concerned about determining truth value of sentences which in turn is to be decided by the latter. Jefffrey C. King and UC Davis point this issue out: A primary purpose of semantics for a natural language is to compositionally assign to sentences semantic values that determine whether the sentences are true or false. Since natural language contain contextually sensitive expressions, semantic values must be assigned to sentences relative to contexts. These semantic values are propositions.... Propositions are the primary bearer of truth and falsity.1 It is in this context that the theory of meaning can be called as organized. For the first time sentences of a considerable part of language may be treated as true or false and hence logic came into existence. The logic coul