Language is not a second–order code through which meanings created in some higher–order realm of existence are mysteriously made manifest and brought to light. To borrow the conceit that Firth was fond of caricaturing, there are no “naked ideas” lurking in the background waiting to be clothed. It is language that creates meaning, in the sense that meaning has for us as human beings (which is the only sense of it that we can know).
Blogger Comment:
It was Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) who said:
Language is the dress of thought,
though he also said:
Words are but the signs of ideas.