Abstract

Throughout the history of the philosophy of language, roughly two traditions can be discerned. There are, on the one hand, those who look upon language as something static, something established once and for all by convention. On the other band are those who view language as something of an organic, or functional nature. To the latter category belong those philosophers who believe that the true meaning of a word or sentence is never, and can never be, instantly apparent from the word or sentence itself.