In this monograph the author outlines, for the first time in the history of linguistics, the development of the study of 'meaning', from the pioneering work of Christian Karl Reisig (1792-1829), Friedrich Haase (1808-1867), Ferdinand Heerdegen (1845-1930), Arsène Darmesteter (1846-88) and Michel Bréal (1832-1915) in the 19th century to the work done by 20th-century scholars such as Saussure, Antoine Meillet, Albert Carnoy, Charles Kay Ogden & Ivor Armstrong Richards, Gustaf Stern, Jost Trier, Leo Weisgerber, Bloomfield, John Rupert Firth, Rudolf Hallig & Walter von Wartburg, Georges Matoré, Eugene Anderson Nida, Pierre Guiraud, and the late Uriel Weinreich, to mention just the most important figures whose work is discussed in the book.