Friday, January 09, 2009  Types of Meaning   Why is this
important? When we talk about teaching and learning, we are
often talking about meaning. Consider the classic constructivist
activity of 'making meaning', for example. Or event he concept
of 'content', which is (ostensibly) the 'meaning' of whatever it
is that a student is being taught.  What are we to make of such
theorizing in the light of the numerous ways that words,
sentences, ideas and constructs can have meaning? What does
'making meaning' mean we we consider the range between logical,
semantical, and functional meaning?  The idea - often so central
to transmission and transactional theorists of learning, that a
word or sentence can have a single meaning, or a 'shared
meaning', is tested to the extreme by an examination of the
nature and constitution of that putative meaning.  In any case,
it is always better to show than to argue. Herewith, a bit of an
account of some of the many different types of meaning:  Literal
meaning - the sentence means