7 - Thought and Language

Summary

Augustine's Picture Again

You will recollect that an integral element of the conception of meaning that Wittgenstein associated with Augustine's pre-reflective picture of language is the idea that language is connected to reality. Augustine remarked that

When grown-ups named some object and at the same time turned towards it, I perceived this, and I grasped that the thing was signified by the sound they uttered, since they meant to point it out. This, however, I gathered from their gestures, the natural language of all peoples […]. (Augustine - Confessions I-8)

So Augustine conceived of words being connected with things by means of ostension. We have already examined Wittgenstein's criticisms of that idea. Let me briefly remind you of some of his points and take the matter forward a little.

First of all, we must distinguish ostensive training from ostensive teaching. All initial language learning is a matter of training. Parents and siblings endlessly repeat words, encourage correct reactions and reinforce correct repetition. This is not explaining what words mean, but inculcating verbal responses and reactions. Ostensive teaching can play a role in language learning only once the child has already acquired substantial linguistic skills and is in the position to start asking ‘What is a so-and-so?’ and ‘What does such-and-such a word mean?’

∙ Second, we must note that the form of words ‘This is so-and-so?’ has two quite different uses. It may be used to make a true or false statement about the object that is pointed at – as when we are asked whether there is anything octagonal around, and in reply we point at a small side table and say ‘This ☞ is octagonal’. Alternatively, we might be asked what the word ‘octagonal’ means, and in reply we might point at the table and say ‘This ☞ is octago-nal’. In the first case, our description could be paraphrased ‘This ☞ table is octagonal’, but in the second case our ostensive utterance is not a description but a definition.