THIS ARTICLE PRESENTED THEORETICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSES CONCERNING IMPORTANT ASPECTS OF LANGUAGE. IT WAS SUGGESTED THAT A LEARNING THEORY WHICH INEGRATES INSTRUMENTAL AND CLASSICAL CONDITIONING, CUTTING ACROSS THEORETICAL LINES, COULD SERVE AS THE BASIS FOR A COMPREHENSIVE THEORY OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND FUNCTION. THE PAPER ILLUSTRATED THE POSSIBILITIES OF SUCH AN INTEGRATED LEARNING APPROACH BY SHOWING THAT WORD MEANING IS ACQUIRED ACCORDING TO THE PRINCIPLES OF CLASSICAL CONDITIONING. HOWEVER, WORDS THAT HAVE ACQUIRED EMOTIONAL MEANING THROUGH THE PROCESS OF CLASSICAL CONDITIONING FUNCTION FOR THE INDIVIDUAL ACCORDING TO THE PRINCIPLES OF INSTRUMENTAL CONDITIONING. THE FINDINGS PRESENTED, DERIVED FROM THE INTEGRATED LEARNING THEORY, CONTRIBUTE TOWARD A LEARNING CONCEPTION OF WORD MEANING, INDICATE ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL FUNCTIONS OF LANGUAGE (ITS MOTIVATIONAL FUNCTION), AND DEMONSTRATE THE VALUE OF THE APPROACH. AN ANALYSIS OF ANOTHER TYPE OF WORD MEANING, DENOTATIVE MEANING, WAS ALSO PRESENTED. (JC)