This question of, "what is in a meaning?" has been driving me nuts all day. I can not come to a comfortable conclusion. I looked it up in the dictionary, strictly due to my persisting curiosity. I found that, according to Webster's unabridged dictionary, meaning is "the sense in which something is understood." So then what is understanding? This idea of meaning seems almost impossible to define; yet I think it is safe to say that meaning is in some way an association between what we hear or see and how our brain reacts neurologically as a result. It also seems reasonable to assume that our neurological reaction will be based on previous experiences. So, if meaning is based on previous experiences, then how did we first come to understand? This again is something that has been driving me crazy. It is so complex and innate that we may never fully understand how it works. However, we can take the information we have and try to theorize about what is going on.
The best explanation that I can come up with is that there is some point in our infancy that for the first time we make an association, perhaps even before we can speak. To me this would be the first time we understand. One might argue that, "what if a baby mistakenly associates a bottle as a rattle?" Is this still understanding? Well that raises the question, who determines whether an association in someones mind is wrong or right? Nobody does. Clearly, there would be a problem if the child grew up thinking a bottle was a rattle, but this is highly unlikely. At some point the child will correct this association, or change it so that it is similar to the associations made by the majority of the people the child knows. Still this correction would not be possible without the original association.
The important thing is that the child was able to make an association in the first place. It can then build upon that connection in the future. Each time we experience a word, our association and therefore our understanding of the word is slighty altered and improved. So, what is a meaning? To me it is what is produced by the mind as a result of experiencing a word; and this production of the mind will be unique to each person.
But how do we communicate with each other if we do not all have identical associations? As long as our individual associations are not too dissimilar then language will continue to be productive.