denotaatioon

Denotaatio is a core concept in semantics describing how words and phrases connect to things in the world or in a given context. In linguistics, denotaatio usually refers to the extension of a term—the set of objects it applies to.

For a singular noun like "dog," the denotation is the set of all dogs in the actual world. For a predicate like "is large," its denotation is the set of individuals such that they are large; for a transitive verb like "loves," the denotation is the set of ordered pairs (x, y) such that x loves y.

Denotation is often contrasted with sense—the mental content or the way a term presents its referent. Frege distinguished Sinn (sense) and Bedeutung (reference). In many theories, the denotation is also called the extension. This distinction helps explain why terms with the same reference can differ in meaning across contexts or languages.

In context, proper names tend to denote a single object, while general terms denote sets; indexicals and context-dependent terms can shift their denotation with possible-world or current-context variation. In formal semantics, denotation is formalized as mappings from linguistic expressions to mathematical objects like sets, relations, or functions, providing a precise account of how language denotes.

See also: reference, extension, intension, sense, semantic theory, possible-world semantics.