Word and World: Practice and the Foundations of Language

Patricia Hanna, Bernard Harrison0521537444, 9780521537445, 0521822874, 9780521822879, 9780511184673

Proposing a new account of the nature of language, founded upon an original interpretation of Wittgenstein, Patricia Hanna and Bernard Harrison deny the existence of a direct referential relationship between words and things. Their provocative re-examination of the interrelations of language and social practice will interest not only philosophers of language but also linguists, psycholinguists, and students of communication.