**NOTE: This tag should not be used.** For questions about the nature of meaning, please use "philosophy-of-language" if you want to ask about the meaning of some quote or idea, please use the name of that idea.
Whatever it is that makes what would otherwise be mere sounds and inscriptions into meaningful instruments of communication and understanding.
The philosophical problem is to demystify this power, and to relate it to what we know of ourselves and the world. Contributions to this problem include the theory of speech acts, and the investigation of communication and the relationship between words and ideas, and words and the world.
[Source : Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy]
