CHAPTER XXIII. Denoting

DENOTING

A concept denotes when, if it occurs in a proposition, the proposition is not about the concept, but about a term connected in a certain peculiar way with the concept. Some people often assert that man is mortal, and yet we never see announced in The Times that Man died on a certain day at his villa residence "Camelot" at Upper Tooting, nor do we hear that Procrastination was again the butt of Mr. Plowden's jokes at Marylebone Police Court last week.

That two phrases may have different meanings and the same denotation was discovered by Alice and Frege. Alice observed that the road which led to Tweedledum's house was that which led to the house of Tweedledee; and Frege pointed out that the phrases "the house to which the road that leads to Tweedledum's house leads" and "the house to which the road that leads to Tweedledee's house leads" have different Sinn, but the same Bedeutung.

FOOTNOTES:

Cf. P. M., pp. 53-4.

See Appendix M.