Concept and Meaning 概念和意义

Concept and Meaning

A concept is a thought about a thing or group of things, which is used to identify a single thing or a category of things. In this respect, a concept is a name of a thing or a group of things. Concept is an activity of our minds, and modern scientists have not discovered what it is physically. We cannot express concept directly. If we want to express it to others, we have to write it out or use other languages. If we write a concept out, it must be a word or a group of words (a phrase) in sentences. In other words, a concept is the meaning a word or a phrase represented in sentences. Concept and meaning are inseparable; they are two sides of the same coin.

If you look up a word in a dictionary, you will find that many words have multiple meanings listed, and many words can be used as different parts of speech. For example, date. As a noun, it may mean a sweet, dark brown, oval fruit. As a verb, it may mean to go out with a boy friend or a girl friend. Do we misunderstand if a word represents multiple meanings? Yes, we do. However, we do not write only a word in an article, but at least a sentence. A word represents only one meaning in sentences. From context, we will choose the most suitable from multiple meanings in a dictionary.

Why does a word in a dictionary have multiple meanings? The reason is that there are countless concepts in our minds, while we cannot produce as many representative words. Even if we can do it, that does not meet the principle of least effort. Least effort is to do less and to accomplish more. It postulates that people will naturally choose the path of least resistance or "effort". The principle of least effort is the theory that covers diverse fields including linguistics. In order to use the fewest words to represent the most meanings, we not only use one a word to represent multiple meanings, but also combine multiple words to represent multiple meanings. We have to do this because the meanings to be represented are countless.

There is no doubt that a word for a meaning is for the most accurate understanding, but it is the least efficient. More words make it easier for accurate understanding, but it is the least efficient; fewer words make it more efficient. Accuracy and efficiency are in conflict. However, human language will adjust them automatically. When accuracy meets the minimum requirement, it is an optimal equilibrium. Although the production of words can be unlimited, humans produce as few words as possible. We do not produce new words until we have to. Therefore, if we compare two writing systems, the one with a larger number of words is more advanced.

Does a word have an inherent meaning? No, definitely not. The meaning of a word or words represents the communicators’ mutual feeling and understanding of something and they agree to use a certain word or words to represent that meaning. The meanings of common words are already in our mind, which we have studied before. When we see the common words we recall the meanings in our minds and select a suitable one. When we read a new word in an article, we check a dictionary and select the most suitable one. Dictionaries list the most commonly used meanings of a word for our selection. We do not know the meaning of individual words without context or some other background. In other words, the meanings of a word listed in dictionary do not make sense. A word conveys meanings only in sentences.

How does a word represent a meaning? The meaning a word represents is like the value of unknowns, which is also called variables in basic algebra and solves certain types of arithmetic problems quickly and easily. If you know computer-programming language, the value of variables in programming is similar to the meaning a word represents. We assign value to an unknown in algebra or a variable in programming and we assign meaning to a word in articles. They work in the same way to be efficient.

In conclusion, a concept is a thought in our minds, and a meaning is what a word or words represent. The meaning we assigned to a word or words is a concept in our minds. They are the same thing in our minds.

Reference: New Concept Linguistics

概念和意义

概念是大脑想到的一个或者一类事物。我们用概念来识别一个事物或者一类事物。 从这个角度来看，一个概念就是一个事物或者一类事物的名称。概念是大脑里的活动，科学家现在还说不清楚概念究竟是什么。我们不能直接表达概念。如果我们要把大脑里的概念告诉其他人，我们必须把概念写出来或通过其他语言方式表达出来。如果我们把一个概念写出来，它一定是句子中的一个word单词，或者几个word（一个phrase）。换句话说，概念就是句子中的一个word或者一个phrase代表的意义。意义和概念就像一个硬币的正面和反面，不可分割。

如果你查字典dictionary，你会发现很多word有多个意义。有的word还有不同的词性parts of speech。例如，date。作为noun名词，意思是枣子，作为verb动词，意思是男女朋友约会。

一个word代表多个意义，会不会产生误解呢？当然会误解。但是，句子里的word只代表一个意义。我们写文章，起码是写一句话，不会只写一个字。根据上下文，我们会从这个word在字典里的很多意义里，选择一个合适的意义。

为什么字典里的一个word有多个意义？原因是我们要表达的概念太多，我们不可能造出那么多的word去代表。即使我们能造，也不符合最省力原则。最省力原则应用于包括语言学在内的各种领域的理论。最省力原则的意思就是少花力气，多出成果。它假定人们会自然选择阻力最小或者最省事的方法。

为了用尽可能少的字，代表尽可能多的意义，我们不仅使用一个字代表多个意义，我们还把几个字组成一个词代表多个意义。我们不得不这样做，因为要表达的意义太多了。

毫无疑问，一个word代表一个意义是最准确的，但效率最低。word越多意味着越准确；word越少意味着越有效率。
准确和效率是互相抵触的。人类语言会自动调整。满足不误解的最低要求，是一个最佳的平衡点。

虽然我们可以无限地造word，但人类自动尽可能少地造。我们不会造新的word，除非不得不造。因此，如果我们比较两种书面语，word的数量多的一定更先进。

word本身有意义吗？没有，绝对没有。一个word或者几个word代表的意义是交流的人对某事物的共同感觉和理解，他们都同意使用某一个word或者某几个word来表示这个事物。

常见的word的意思已经在我们的大脑里，因为我们以前学习过。当我们看到常见的word，我们会回忆起大脑里这个word的各种意义，然后选择一个合适的意义。当我们在文章中阅读一个新word时，我们会查字典并选择最合适的意义。字典把每个word最常用的意义都列出来供我们选择。

没有上下文或者其他背景知识，我们不知道一个word代表的意思。换句话说，字典列出来一个word可能代表的各种意义，没有用。只有在句子中，一个word才有明确的意义。

word如何代表意义？
代数里使用未知数（变量）可以轻松解决复杂的算术问题，word代表的意义就像代数题里的未知数的值。
如果你懂计算机编程语言，程序里变量的值就相当于word代表的意义。
代数题里未知数的值，计算机程序里变量的值，和文章中的一个word代表的意义，它们工作的方式是相同的，都有效率。

总之，概念是我们大脑里的思维，word(s)代表的是意义。我们规定word(s)代表的意义就是大脑里的概念；在我们的大脑里，它们是同一个东西。

参考：新概念语言学

注：单词word是英文句子的基本单位。字是中文句子的基本单位。所以语言学里中文的字相当于英文的单词，中文的词相当于英文的phrase。中文的词不是一个基本单位，而是多个基本单位。

Notes: Words are fundamental units in an English sentence. Chinese characters are fundamental units in a Chinese sentence. Therefore, linguistically, Chinese characters are words. A group of Chinese characters, or a “Ci” in Chinese, is a phrase. A phrase is not a fundamental unit, but a group of fundamental units.