" Word-Meaning " and the Conceptual Determination of Meaning and Reference *

Abstract : Meaning, therefore, is not an association or a function of ostensive references. What makes ostension possible, that is, what makes the communication of the meaning of the pointing activity possible, is the social significance of the tools of activity that are available to society. What makes ostensive reference communicable is this conceptuality that manifests itself in the transformation of the contingency of the relation between the word and the phenomenon it denotes into the historical necessity of their relation.