The term ‘meaning’ has a broad and expansive scope. Linguists and philosophers sometimes focus on some notion of literal or conventional meaning described under the heading ‘semantics’ while being well aware of various phenomena falling under the heading of ‘pragmatics’, including metaphor, emotive meanings, social and political meanings and so forth. We need to think where there are the best prospects for developing systematic theories. My focus will be mostly on the semantics, using as a lens a rough contrast between the inner, that is a mental or psychological basis of meaning and the outer, which can include the behavioural, the physical context and broader social context of an utterance. Arguably a satisfactory account of meaning will involve a suitable interaction between the inner and the outer. As an example, I shall briefly discuss a familiar style of truth conditions approach to meaning with a look at the notion of direct reference to see how different styles of theory can be appropriate for different purposes.
