Of the various disciplines which investigate different aspects of human language, this Handbook concentrates predominantly on philosophy of language (with some additional discussion of linguistic philosophy and philosophy of linguistics) and, to some necessary degree, also on linguistics. Linguistics, the scientific study of language, is concerned with theoretical and applied analyses of human natural language and with constructing appropriate levels of linguistic representation. Philosophy of language, on the other hand, provides philosophical investigations into the phenomenon of language in general, concentrating especially on the problems of meaning, reference, truth, and understanding. Linguistic philosophy is a philosophical method, an approach to philosophy.