the.com/language games
wittgenstein's idea that words don't have meanings, they have jobs.
means a philosophical term for the idea that language only makes sense within the rule-bound activity it's being used for, like a move in a game, not a fixed label pointing at a thing.
from coined by ludwig wittgenstein in philosophical investigations (1953), written after he abandoned his own earlier theory that language pictures reality; he decided meaning was use, not correspondence, and likened talking to playing chess, poker, or tag.
self-correctionwittgenstein disowned his first book to invent this
builders examplehe starts with two bricklayers shouting single words
family resemblancegames share no single trait, just overlapping similarities
no private versiona language game only works if others can play it
for instance
legal language — a contract's words only mean something inside courtroom rules
chess notation — e4 means nothing outside the game it governs
prayer and swearing — same words, wholly different games depending on context