§ 8. Acquirement of Meaning.—Reproduction has a great many modes and degrees, according as the original experience is more or less fully and independently reinstated. The least that can happen, in order to make the word reproduction applicable at all, is found in a process of fundamental importance which we may call the acquirement of meaning. We must distinguish between meaning which is primary and meaning which is acquired. Primary meaning accompanies the first occurrence of any series having continuity of interest. Secondary meaning accompanies its recurrence, and depends on the fact that it has occurred before. In the series a, bm1, cm2, dm3,, on its first occurrence d has a meaning due to the cumulative disposition left behind by a, b, c. Now, suppose that on a future occasion the process as a whole is repeated. Its point of departure is in a, but a now excites the cumulative disposition produced by the previous occurrence of the whole series a, bml, cm2, dm3.. The startingpoint of the series is therefore no longer a, but am3. In other words, a has acquired meaning through previous experience. Let us consider the example of a tune. On first hearing it, the successive notes have each a significance,—a value for consciousness derived from their connexion with the whole. Now suppose that the tune has been repeated often enough to become recognisable. In order to recognise it, it is not necessary to go through the whole again. You know what the tune is as soon as you have heard a certain portion of it. This stands for or means the rest; and if you are only interested in recognising the tune, it is quite unnecessary to go further, or even mentally to reproduce what follows. So, if I begin to say, "Twice one is two, twice two"—there is no need for me to go further. A hearer who knows the multiplication table knows what follows as a whole without detailed repetition. The beginning of the series is equivalent to the whole, and it is just because it means the whole that it is unnecessary to repeat the whole in detail.

Let us now take a case which belongs to quite a low level of conscious life. A chick on emerging from the shell, and without previous experience, tends to peck at, seize, and swallow all small objects*. This is a cognitive process, which has for its end the cessation of the appetite for food. Now the chicken does not, at first, distinguish between what is edible and what is not. This it has to learn by experience. It will at the outset peck at and seize all worms and caterpillars indiscriminately. There is a particular kind of caterpillar called the cinnabar caterpillar. When this is first presented to the chicken it is pecked at and seized like other similar objects. But as soon as it is fairly seized it is dropped in disgust. When next the chicken sees the caterpillar, it looks at it suspiciously and refrains from pecking. Now, what has happened in this case? The sight of the cinnabar caterpillar reexcites the total disposition left behind by the previous experience of pecking at it, seizing it, and ejecting it in disgust. Thus the effect of these experiences is revived. The sight of the cinnabar caterpillar has acquired a meaning. It means the experiences which in the first instance followed it; and just because it means them it may more or less dispense with the necessity of actually repeating them. It may so determine the course of action that repetition or reinstatement of the specific items of the previous experience is needless. To this extent, it is practically equivalent to them: it functions instead of them.

* This example is taken from Lloyd Morgan's Habit and Instinct, p. 41.

When one thing means another, it can, for certain purposes, or in reference to a certain end, be substituted for another. If a means b, this does not imply that a carries b along with it or about with it. We might as well suppose that a fivepound note must always have five sovereigns literally wrapped up in it. The note will pass current instead of five sovereigns, and in like manner the peculiar visual appearance of the cinnabar caterpillar will, in some degree, pass current instead of the peculiar sensation of disgust which has previously followed it. It reexcites the whole disposition left behind by the previous process, and it reexcites this disposition as it has been modified in the course of previous process. Consequently, this process will not take place again as it took place before. But to understand the special kind of transformation which it undergoes, we must take into account the essential nature of appetitive process. This lies in its being directed to an end,—in the case of the chicken, the satisfaction of the appetite for food. This tendency towards an end is manifested in one general character of all appetitive process. Lines of action, if and so far as they are unsuccessful, tend to be discontinued or varied; and those which prove successful, to be maintained. In this way, for instance, accuracy in the act of pecking is attained by the chicken. When it misses, it tries again and again with slight variations until it succeeds, and it is the successful adjustments which tend to persist, and the unsuccessful which are eliminated. The endeavour towards an end, whether the end be consciously foreseen or not, is ipso facto an endeavour to avoid failure and obstruction. Everything in the way of check or impediment or want of success, causes dissatisfaction and altered behaviour. This holds good of appetitive activity in its primary occurrence; it is always characterised by persistence with varied effort. The same must also hold good for its repetition. Here, too, the lines of action which proved unsuccessful on its primary occurrence will be suppressed whenever the conditions under which they previously led to failure are recognisable. Thus, the sight of the peculiar markings of the cinnabar caterpillar will, at the outset, by its acquired meaning, repress the tendency to peck and swallow. In other words, so far as the end of action is concerned, the sight of the caterpillar is superior to the actual taste of it, just as cheques and paper money generally are for certain purposes superior to coin.