Tobias Ernst: 7:49pm Feb 14, 2004: Maybe you would want to post a sample sentence from Wittgenstein for eaach word? - Non-ProZ.com (asker): 8:05pm Feb 14, 2004: Philosophical Investigations - I am wondering if it matters that Wittgenstein switches between "mean" and "signify" in his discussion from Philosophical Investigations. Does it matter that bedueten and bedeutung are seldom used with personal subjects? SwissTell: 8:46pm Feb 14, 2004: Not sure whether I understand your additional concern - and as Tobias Ernst already pointed out, a correct answer might be easier with a sentence to be guided by. Offhand I would have to say: no, it does NOT matter that bedeuten und Bedeutung are .... - elisp: 9:49pm Feb 14, 2004: Not just most of Wittgenstein's works, but a major part of 20th century philosophy is about the meaning of *meaning*. We can't help you to understand Wittgenstein by translating his terms into English. - Johanna Timm, PhD: 1:13am Feb 15, 2004: As Tobias suggested: please give us a sample sentence!! -
Explanation: In Std German usage these days, "Bedeutung" can take a meaning of "significance", but also of "meaning".
Now I haven't been into philosophy (after c18) that much myself, but Wittgenstein borders on some linguistic topics. "bezeichnen" and "bedeuten" reminds me of the Saussurean distinction of "signifiant" and "signifiee"... in this sense, they are very similar (to me) but not quite:
- whereas "bezeichnen" would indicate the actional quality of a signifiant (which is considered to be) pointing to one *specific* (class of) signifiee,
- "bedeuten" would indicate a signifiant pointing *in the general direction* of a signifiee.
Does that help in any way?
I don't think example sentences could be of much use with comprehension questions about philosophical texts... there, one should rather ask for an example *text* - which, however, could only serve to help figure out the meaning of the words in it _as_far_as_they_are_in_it_.
The translation workplace 
