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上周首次出现了成员没发贴的现象,我们很危险啊.......
第四周 编号16-20
16. What about the colour samples
that A shews to B: are they part of
language? Well, it is as you please.
They do not belong among the words;
yet when I say to someone: " ronounce
the word \'the\' ", you will count the
second "the" as part of the
language-game (8); that is, it is a
sample of what the other is meant to say.
It is most natural, and causes least
confusion, to reckon the samples
among the instruments of
the language.
((Remark on the reflexive
pronoun "this sentence". - (502)))
17. It will be possible to
say: In language (8) we have
different kinds of word. For
the functions of the word "slab"
and the word "block" are more
alike than those of "slab" and "d".
But how we group words into
kinds will depend on the aim of
the classification,---and on our
own inclination.
Think of the different points
of view from which one can classify
tools or chess-men.
18. Do not be troubled by
the fact that languages (2) and
(8) consist only of orders. If you
want to say that this shews
them to be incomplete, ask
yourself whether our language
is complete;---whether it was
so before the symbolism of
chemistry and the notation of
the infinitesimal calculus were
incorporated in it; for these are,
so to speak, suburbs of our
language. (And how many houses
or streets does it take before a
town begins to be a town?)
Our language can be seen as
an ancient city: a maze of little
streets and squares, of old and
new houses, and of houses with
additions from various periods;
and this surrounded by a multitude
of new boroughs with straight
regular streets and uniform houses.
19. It is easy to imagine a
language consisting only of
orders and reports in battle.
---Or a language consisting only
of questions and expressions for
answering yes and no. And
innumerable others.-----And
to imagine a language means
to imagine a form of life.
But what about this: is the
call "Slab!" in example (2) a
sentence or a word?--- If a word,
surely it has not the same meaning
as the like-sounding word of our
ordinary language, for in (2) it is
a call. But if a sentence, it is
surely not the elliptical sentence:
"Slab!" of our language.
-----As far as the first question
goes you can call "Slab!" a word
and also a sentence; perhaps it
could be appropriately called a
\'degenerate sentence\' (as one
speaks of a degenerate hyperbola);
in fact it is our \'elliptical\' sentence.
---But that is surely only a shortened
form of sentence "Bring me a slab",
and there is no such sentence in
example (2).---But why should I
not on contrary have called the
sentence "Bring me a slab" a
lengthening of the sentence "Slab!"?---
Because if you shout "Slab!"
you really mean: "Bring me a slab".---
But how do you do this: how
do you mean that while you
say "Slab!"? Do you say the
unshortened sentence to
yourself? And why should I
translate the call "Slab!" into
a different expression in order
to say what someone means
by it? And if they mean the
same thing---why should I not
say: "When he says \'Slab!\'"?
Again, if you can mean "Bring
me the slab", why should you
not be able to mean "Slab!"?
-----But when I call "Slab!",
then what I want is that he
should bring me a slab!-----
Certainly, but does \'wanting this\'
consist in thinking in some from
or other a different sentence
from the one you utter?---
20. But now it looks as if
when someone says "Bring
me a slab" he could mean
this expression as one long
word corresponding to the
single word "Slab!" ----Then
can one mean it sometimes
as one word and sometimes
as four? And can one mean it
sometimes as one word and
sometimes as four? And how
does one usually mean it?-----
I think we shall be inclined to
say: we mean the sentence
as four words when we use it
in contrast with other sentences
such as "Hand me a slab",
"Bring him a slab". "Bring two slabs",
etc.; that is, in contrast with
sentences containing the
separate words of our
command in other combinations.-----
But what does using one sentence
in contrast with others consist in?
Do the others, perhaps, hover
before one\'s mind? All of them?
And while one is saying the one
sentence, or before, or afterwards?---
No. Even if such an explanation
rather tempts us, we need only
think for a moment of what actually
happens in order to see that we
are going astray here. We say that
we use the command in contrast
with other sentences because our
language contains the possibility
of those other sentences.
Someone who did not understand
our language, a foreigner, who
had fairly often heard someone
giving the order: "Bring me a slab!",
might believe that this whole series
of sounds was one word
corresponding perhaps to the word
for "building-stone" in his language.
If he himself had then given this
order perhaps he would have
pronounced it differently, and
we should say:
he pronounces it so oddly
because he takes it for a single word.-----
But then, is there not also
something different going on
in him when he pronounces it,
---something corresponding
to the fact that he conceives
the sentence as a single word?-----
Either the same thing may go
on in him, or something different.
For what goes on in you when
you give such an order? Are you
conscious of its consisting of four
words while you are uttering it?
Of course you have a mastery of
this language---which contains
those other sentences as well---
but is this having a mastery
something that happens while you
are uttering the sentence?---
And I have admitted that the
foreigner will probably pronounce
a sentence differently if he
conceives it differently; but
what we call his wrong conception
need not lie in anything that
accompanies the utterance of
the command.
The sentence is \'elliptical\',
not because it leaves out
something that we think
when we utter it, but because
it is shortened---in comparison
with a particular paradigm of
our grammar.---
Of course one might object
here: "You grant that the
shortened and the unshortened
sentence have the same sense.
---What is this sense, then?
Isn\'t there a verbal expression
for this sense?"-----
But doesn\'t the fact that
sentences have the same
sense consist in their having
the same use?---(In Russian
one says "stone red" instead
of " the stone is red"; do they
feel the copula to be missing
in the sense, or attach it in
thought?) |
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