baumhaus.digital/Art, Cognition, Education/Introduction to linguistics: From पाणिनि to Čepeto/2. Sign/Sinn & Bedeutung
In the
philosophy of language, the distinction between
sense and
reference was an idea of the German philosopher and mathematician
Gottlob Frege in 1892 (in his paper "
On Sense and Reference"; German: "Über Sinn und Bedeutung"), reflecting the two ways he believed a
singular term may have
meaning.
The
reference (or "
referent";
Bedeutung) of a
proper name is the object it means or indicates (
bedeuten), whereas its sense (
Sinn) is what the name expresses. The reference of a
sentence is its
truth value, whereas its sense is the thought that it expresses.