Meaning is in the essence of the human condition and is most definitively and socially shaped in language. But language can in a way displace 'reality' and in this sense it is a metaphor. This book focuses on the fundamental meaning that enables language to ‘stand for the world', a primary condition for further aspects of encrypted, disrupted and decentered meaning generated in language’s emplacement in society. It aspires to provide a secure grounding for unravelling those further aspects of meaning-making. The book comes complete with power point presentations for each chapter, made available to instructors adopting it as textbook.