ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Meaning–text theory

Meaning-text theory is a way to understand how language works. It's like a big puzzle, and each piece of the puzzle helps us understand how words come together to make sentences.

When we talk, we use words to express our thoughts and ideas. These words have meanings, and they fit together to create a sentence that also has a meaning. For example, the sentence "The cat sat on the mat" is made up of words that have specific meanings, and when they are put together, they give us a specific meaning, which is that the cat is sitting on the mat.

Meaning-text theory helps us understand this process by looking at the meanings of individual words and how they combine to create meaning in a sentence. It also considers how the structure of a sentence can affect the meaning, such as word order or the use of punctuation.

Think of it like building a tower with blocks. The blocks are the words, and the tower is the sentence. Each block has a specific shape, color, and size, just like words have specific meanings. When you place the blocks together, they create something new and meaningful, just like when we put words together to create sentences.

So, meaning-text theory helps us understand how words are used to create sentences and how those sentences have meaning. It's like a big puzzle that helps us understand how language works.
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