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Natural languages

Human language in its broadest sense — spoken, written, signed. Context-dependent, ambiguous, embodied. The language that grows through use rather than being specified in advance.

Use, not definition

Meaning lives in use. Wittgenstein’s language games: meaning isn’t fixed by reference to abstract objects but arises from the patterns of use in a form of life. “Slab” in a builder’s game means what it does because of what happens when it’s said — not because of a dictionary definition.

Differential signs

Meaning is relational. Saussure showed signs have no content in themselves; a word’s meaning exists only in its difference from other words in the same system. No word stands alone; each is defined by what it isn’t.

Context and ambiguity

A single word can mean different things in different contexts — not as a defect but as a feature. Natural language carries more than any fixed specification could. Its ambiguity lets it apply to situations the speakers didn’t anticipate; its context-dependence lets the same expression do different work in different settings.

Embodied grounding

Language doesn’t start at words. Before conscious thought, the body already categorises — the hand shields from heat before “hot” arises. Merleau-Ponty traced this: meaning inhabits gesture before it inhabits words. Natural language rests on embodied structure all the way down.