Blurb:

Chapter 1 introduces the notion of meaning in language, identifies its levels, aspects and types, and reviews different approaches to its definition. The aim is to introduce the basic terminology used in the study of meaning. The chapter is organised as follows. Section 1.1 explains what the notion of meaning is. It consists of two subsections. The first deals with levels of meaning. The second revolves around aspects of meaning. Section 1.2 sheds light on the different types of meaning: descriptive, expressive and social. Section 1.3 addresses the different conceptions of meaning: referential, relational, decompositional which includes componential, conceptual and primitive, and representational. In all the sections, I pursue three steps. First, I introduce the meaning conception. Second, I explain its assumption. Third, I give an example to test its application. Section 1.4 draws a comparison between the two mainstream paradigms of meaning: formalist and cognitive. Section 1.5 summarises the main points of the chapter.