On meaning

I continue to be puzzled by the puzzle: what does the word mean mean? Sensu stricto, it describes the following computational event: Mr A’s mouth says something; for example “IMHO”; Mr B’s brain hears it and runs down the memory banks in search of a match; it finds one and sends up a flag which says “we got a match”. That “IMHO” means “in my humble opinion” is a kind of minor eureka experience then. If this is what to mean means, then the way we commonly use the word is all wrong: one cannot say for example “YHWH means God”: for if it does – if the flag of recognition goes up every time I read YHWH -- then there is no need for such a sentence; one can only say, as an instruction to someone else who does not read Hebrew, “when you see YHWH translate God” or “when you see YHWH put ‘God’ in its place”. This is all we mean when we say “YHWH means God”. Most certainly one cannot say “your life is meaningless”; in the ordinary usage we would say, rightly but – sensu stricto – wrongly that to say such a thing means nothing.

No one I speak to about this seems to see the problem. Is it only in my head?