THE NATURE OF MEANING: STRUCTURAL, COGNITIVE, AND PRAGMATIC PERSPECTIVES IN CONTEMPORARY LINGUISTICS

The concept of meaning has always been one of the central issues in linguistics, evolving across different theoretical paradigms. This paper explores the nature of meaning through three important perspectives: structural, cognitive, and pragmatic. While the structural approach views meaning as a system of relations within language, which emphasizes the role of signs and oppositions, the cognitive perspective interprets meaning as a mental construct shaped by human experience, conceptualization, and embodied cognition. The pragmatic approach, on the other hand, focuses on the role of context and communication, highlighting speaker intention, inference, and social interaction. By comparing these perspectives, the paper shows that contemporary linguistics integrates multiple dimensions of meaning and offers a more comprehensive understanding of language structure, human cognition, and real-life usage.