Language-game

Language-game
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This article is about the philosophical concept. For systems of language obfuscation such as Pig Latin, see Language game.
A language-game is a philosophical concept developed by Ludwig Wittgenstein, referring to simple examples of language use and the actions into which the language is woven.

Description
Wittgenstein used the term "language-game" (Sprachspiel) to designate forms of language simpler than the entirety of a language itself, "consisting of language and the actions into which it is woven" (PI 7), and connected by family resemblance. The concept was intended "to bring into prominence the fact that the speaking of language is part of an activity, or a form of life" (PI 23).
The term 'language game' is used to refer to:
• Fictional examples of language use that are simpler than our own everyday language. (e.g. PI 2)
• Simple uses of language with which children are first taught language (training in language).
• Specific regions of our language with their own grammars and relations to other language-games.
• All of a natural language composed of a family of language-games.
These meanings are not separated from each other by sharp boundaries, but blend into one another (as suggested by the idea of family resemblance). The concept is based on the following analogy: The rules of language (grammar) are analogous to the rules of games; meaning something in language is thus analogous to making a move in a game. The analogy between a language and a game brings out the fact that only in the various and multiform activities of human life do words have meaning. (The concept is not meant to suggest that there is anything trivial about language, or that language is 'just a game', quite the contrary.)



Examples
The classic example of a language-game is the so-called "builder's language" introduced in §2 of the Philosophical Investigations:
“ The language is meant to serve for communication between a builder A and an assistant B. A is building with building-stones: there are blocks, pillars, slabs and beams. B has to pass the stones, in the order in which A needs them. For this purpose they use a language consisting of the words "block", "pillar" "slab", "beam". A calls them out; — B brings the stone which he has learnt to bring at such-and-such a call. (PI 2.) ”
Later "this" and "there" are added (with functions analogous to the function these words have in natural language), and "a, b, c, d" as numerals. An example of its use: builder A says "d — slab — there" and points, and builder B counts four slabs, "a, b, c, d..." and moves them to the place pointed to by A. The builder's language is an activity into which is woven something we would recognize as language, but in a simpler form. This language-game resembles the simple forms of language taught to children, and Wittgenstein asks that we conceive of it as "a complete primitive language" for a tribe of builders.
Lyotard's interpretation
Jean-François Lyotard explicitly drew upon Wittgenstein's concept of language-games in developing his own notion of metanarratives. See, for example, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. However, Wittgenstein's concept is, from its inception, of a plurality of language games; their plurality is not taken to be a feature solely of contemporary discourse. Lyotard's discussion is primarily applied in the contexts of authority, power and legitimation, where Wittgenstein's is concerned to mark distinctions between a wide range of activities in which language users engage.

See also
• Philosophical Investigations
• Description of language-games in sec. 3.4 of Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, "Ludwig Wittgenstein", http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/wittgenstein/#Lan.
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Ludwig Wittgenstein


Family Margaret Stonborough-Wittgenstein • Karl Wittgenstein • Paul Wittgenstein • Works associated with Paul Wittgenstein


Early work Picture theory of language • Truth tables


Later work Language-games • Private language argument • Family resemblance • Rule following • Forms of life • Wittgenstein's philosophy of mathematics


Publications Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus • Some Remarks on Logical Form • Blue and Brown Books • Philosophical Remarks • Philosophical Investigations • On Certainty • Culture and Value • Remarks on Frazer's Golden Bough • Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics • Zettel • Remarks on Colour • Lectures and Conversations on Aesthetics, Psychology, and Religious Belief


Movements Analytic philosophy • Linguistic turn • Ideal language philosophy • Logical atomism • Logical positivism • Ordinary language philosophy • Wittgensteinian fideism • Quietism


Friends G.E.M. Anscombe • R.B. Braithwaite • Rudolf Carnap • Paul Engelmann • John Maynard Keynes • Peter Geach • Norman Malcolm • G.E. Moore • David Pinsent • Frank P. Ramsey • Rush Rhees • Bertrand Russell • Moritz Schlick • Francis Skinner • Piero Sraffa • Vienna Circle • Friedrich Waismann • Peter Winch • G.H. von Wright


Biographers David Edmonds • Brian McGuinness • Ray Monk • William Warren Bartley


Secondary sources A.J. Ayer • Gordon Baker • James F. Conant • Cora Diamond • Terry Eagleton • Peter Hacker • Saul Kripke • Anthony Kenny • Warren Goldfarb • Stanley Cavell • D.Z. Phillips • Colin McGinn • Jaakko Hintikka • Oswald Hanfling • A.C. Grayling • Rupert Read • Barry Stroud • Stephen Toulmin • Crispin Wright


Miscellaneous Cambridge Apostles • Cambridge University Moral Sciences Club • Haidbauer incident • Haus Wittgenstein


Films Wittgenstein (film)


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Categories: Philosophy of language