Most of the ordinary words in a language do not mean; rather, they act as rigid designators, referring to the same object in all possible words in which the object exists. Most words are names that are used as rigid designators of kinds--natural kinds (species, genre, and so forth), artifacts, physical and social magnitudes, and sorts of…

This book is an introduction to linguistics, written for the beginning student. Among the topics explored are speculations about the origins of language, its nature, how it grows, and how it changes. Other topics include what is essential in the structure of language, the similarities and differences among languages, how the varying patterns of…

Lectures, outlines, and class exercises are collected from 16 experienced teachers of general semantics in colleges, adult education, and management training. Among the subject areas explored in the sample lessons are high-level abstractions, extensional-intensional meanings, the "is" of identity, listening, classification, labeling, general…