Social meaning

Abstract In recent decades, semanticists moving beyond truth conditional meaning and sociolinguists moving beyond correlations with social structural categories have developed a shared interest in what is commonly called social meaning. This raises the possibility of a comprehensive theory of meaning, moving away from the exclusively propositional model of grammar, and treating language not just as structure but as practice. The paper briefly traces the emergence of social meaning in sociolinguistics, and discusses some issues involved in a broader theory, such as what counts as social meaning, the notions of context and intention, and the need to adopt the Peircian sign.