Language, concepts and reality

Abstract

Natural languages do not exist without people who speak them, and a world of things they speak about and of which they themselves are part. It is essential to natural languages that they may be used by their speakers to express and communicate what they know and think about this world, what sense they make of it, of themselves, others, the situations in which they find themselves, as well as the acts they perform in those situations. And it is this communicative fact about languages that makes it possible for its users to develop social institutions, societies and cultures. It is through language that persons may come to agree and make conventions and rules for how to organise and carry out their lives in societies, and determine what acts to perform — and not to perform — within their institutions. And it is through language that people establish and come to learn about the values, significance and purposes of the institutions which make up the societies and cultures in which they live.¹