Intension
From Free net encyclopedia
Intension (or "connotation") refers to the meaning or characteristics encompassed by a given word, often expressed by a definition.
Intension is often discussed with regard to extension. Intension refers to the set of all possible things which a word could describe. By contrast, extension (or denotation) refers to the set of all actual things which the word actually describes. For example, the intension of 'car' is all possible cars (including mile-high cars made of chocolate). But the extension of 'car' is all actual cars (past, present and future), which will amount to millions or billions of cars, but probably doesn't include any mile-high cars made of chocolate.
Intension is an essential part of meaning. The meaning of a word (for example) is the bond between the idea or thing the word is intended to describe and the word itself. This is what Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure described with his concept of the signified or mentally-evoked aspect of the sign (as contrasted with the signifier, the actual, physical object of the sign itself). Intension is analogous to the signified concepts, extension to actual thing or things being referred to. The intension provides the directions by which objects (the extension) and ideas are identified. Without some understanding of the intension, words could have no meaning.
Intension and intensionality (the state of having intension) should not be confused with intention and intentionality, which are pronounced the same and occasionally arise in the same philosophical context. Where this happens, the letter 's' or 't' is sometimes italicized to emphasize the distinction.