ABSTRACT
Judged by its crucial importance for the solution of all sorts of theoretical and practical issues, the precise nature of meaning has received relatively scant attention. More surprising is the fact that grammarians as a rule have failed to give the question of meaning adequate and explicit attention. But grammarians have been proverbially pedagogues: and, as a professional class, not distinguished by keen intellectual virility. Logical implication is thus a necessary though not a sufficient condition of physical meaning. The perception of the material meaning or nature of the object symbolized is therefore essential to the recognition of verbal equivalence. Thus, children begin by using the same word regularly for many different things; and it is only through the fact that they fail to communicate their wants or to attain their objectives that the meaning of words gets more defined.
