The meaning, for linguistics, is that element which, together with the signifier, forms what is known as a linguistic sign. Borrowing the words of Ferdinand de Saussure, the linguist of Swiss origin and who is considered in some way as the founder of modern Linguistics, the meaning, is the mental content that is given to the linguistic sign.
This mental content, of course, will depend on each individual, since each one will assign one, whereas in order to achieve optimal communication it will be necessary that by convention the meaning is the same for the people who communicate4.
The Linguistic sign, according also to Saussure, presents two basic components, the signifier (the sound of linguistic expression) and the meaning (mental image associated with that sound).
Likewise, Saussure's theory maintains that linguistic signs themselves only exist in relation to other signs, because what refers to a table tells us that a table is not a chair, a sideboard or a bed, but a table, a fact that also it says that meaning can only exist when there is a plurality of meaningful things, which is known as polysemy.
On the other hand, pragmatics, that sub-branch of linguistics that deals with the way in which context influences the interpretation of meaning, tells us that the two main forms of context are linguistic context and situational context.
He too meaning is the sense or concept that represents a thing, a word or a sign. The meaning of his smile is unknown to us.
Another use of the term meaning, which has nothing to do with the one recently mentioned and more recurrent, is to refer when someone is known, famous or important for a prominent issue. John Lennon was a significant musician of the last century.
