Question: The passage given below is followed by four summaries. Choose the option that best captures the author’s position.
A fundamental property of language is that it is slippery and messy and more liquid than solid, a gelatinous mass that changes shape of fit. As Wittgenstein would remind us, “usage has no sharp boundary”.
Oftentimes, the only way to determine the meaning of a word is to examine how it is used. This insight is often described as the “meaning is use” doctrine. There are differences between the “meaning is use” doctrine and a dictionary-first theory of meaning. “The dictionary’s careful fixing of words to definitions, like butterflies pinned under glass, can suggest that this is how language works. The definitions can seem to ensure and fix the meaning of words, just as the gold standard can back a country’s currency”. What Wittgenstein found in the circulation of ordinary language, however, was a free-floating currency of meaning. The value of each word arises out of the exchange. The lexicographer abstracts a meaning from that exchange, which is then set within the conventions of the dictionary definition.
Option 1 is incorrect. The précis makes a comparison between the two approaches and suggests that the ‘meaning in use’ approach makes more sense. However, it does not state that the ‘actual’ meaning of words is to be decided by free-exchange alone and not by references. Eliminate option 1.
Option 2 is inaccurate. The précis favours the flexible approach to the meaning of words and not the fixed one. Eliminate option 2.
Option 3 is correct. It sums up the précis accurately by stating that the meaning of words is to be derived from their usage and that this approach is unfortunately reversed in the dictionary use where usage is observed only to “fix” meaning. Retain option 3.
Option 4 is incorrect. The précis clearly favours the ‘meaning in use’ approach to the dictionary one. Eliminate option 4.
Hence, the correct answer is option 3.