Words and sentences
pp. 267-282
in: Oscar P. Wood, George Pitcher (eds), Ryle, Berlin, Springer, 1970Abstract
Gilbert Ryle has written often, wittily, and well about meaning. From what he has written on that subject I want to pick out for further scrutiny one particular topic —namely, that of the relations, or some of them, between the notions of words, sentences, use, and meaning. On this topic, on which Ryle has written more than once,1 he seems to me, though battling on the side of the angels, to have gone wrong in some respects; and I believe he has gone wrong through seeking, as one might put it, to cut a longish story too short. If that is right, then there is more to be said, and not only in the sense in which there always is.
