The Language Philosophy Of The Confucian Analects

In 20th century the philosophers' attention had changed from the ontology and the Epistemology to language, the link of the world and the human being. In the time the philosophy of language suddenly appeared and became the mainstream of the philosophy.The Meaning Theory is a basic question of language philosophy. It discusses the relations of the human thought, the world and the language. About the language and the world, on the word aspcet, Confucius first proposed the Rectify Name Theory. "the name" is what we call the thing. It is composed by signifiant and dignified. "Being",seemingly is the things which existe in the bjective world .But, in fact, it is not realy exist and just is an idealism product of his subjective prejudice and ideal. What he say only exists in "the possible world".Confucius thought one word's meaning contains the natural attribute or the essential characteristic of things. At the same time, he proposed the meaning of words must contains events and moralstandard. About names, references and meanings, he realized that one referrence is not only corresponds with one name .These names have defined the object from different angles. The name is the way aiming at the object.Compared With the Reference Theory, they both thought the language correspondences with another thing. the name and its reference has the static logical correspondence relations. As soon as the relations fixed,it will not be changed. But the reference Theory acknowledged that objective things existe rationaly and objective, which must be discussed in advance. Therefore, the correspondence things surely contain reference and the objective things.The Idea Theory more attended human being.It thought person's idea decided word's significance. Knowing of one word actually is that we understand it by heart and use it. It is the same viewpoint as the Rectify Names Theory.About the truth, Confucius advocated "real" is consistent with the fact. Revolving "genuine or fake","yes or no", Confucius proposed many concepts. For example, "belife", "act","morals"and so on.Confucius thought language is a tool. it transmits culture, and enlightens students. this is the effect of the Speech Act. Confucius think the language was the exchanging thought's tool. But people needs to choose the suitable linguistic environment, the right talker, the method.And what they say must conform to our moral standard.In the Confucian Analects, Confucius realized the importance and functions of language. But he had also discovered language's lack. So he said he will not to say anything. Because the language can not completely express the Confucius' inner feelings. The other reason is that ,in the world, there are something we can not say clearly.