Random Image for demeaning
Image originally shown at http://slantmouth.com/articles/supermanOrSuperfreak/images/demeaning.jpg
Image for demeaning
Possible definitions for demeaning
meaning
In philosophy, the sense of an expression (e.g., a word or sentence) by contrast with its reference (i.e., the relation between expressions and what they designate). For example, "the tallest person" means "the person whose height is greater than that of any other," but its reference may be John Doe--or no one, since two or more can be tallest. Thus, it will not do to say that words mean the thing they designate (or make us think of). Further problems beset this referential theory of meaning. Two expressions may have the same referent but not the same meaning (e.g., "the morning star" and "the evening star" denote the same planet, yet do not have exactly the same meaning). Meaningful phrases can also pretend to refer without really doing so (e.g., "the present king of France" is meaningful even though there is no such person). By contrast, semantic theories claim that the notion of meaning is best explained in terms of truth rather than reference, that a word's meaning should be explained in terms of its contribution to the truth conditions of the sentences in which it occurs. Difficulties with semantic theories led to the use theory of meaning, inspired by the work of L. Wittgenstein and J. L. Austin. It admits that not all words refer to something, and not all utterances are true or false; that what is common to all words and sentences is that people use them in speech (see speech act theory); and that their meaning may consequently be nothing more than their use, or, alternatively, the rules that govern their employment. See also semantics.
Top words beginning with D: dopa, dearworth, deliquium, diselder, disconsolation, discolours, dumosity, droved, dalar, delenda, dessiatine, deciseness, dutchmen, debet, disrupture, dlitt, dyassic, dramatics, devonian, dipartition
Browse the alphabet: A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z