Introduction
pp. 3-8
in: Martin Gustafsson, Lars Hertzberg (eds), The practice of language, Berlin, Springer, 2002Abstract
Language, it seems, is a matter of practical employment. Without real-life exchange between concrete human beings, there would be no such thing as linguistic meaning. And, as engaged participants in such linguistic activities, we do not treat people's utterances as objects for theoretical study. Rather, we act upon what other people say; we provide answers to questions, argue for or against hypotheses, draw conclusions, obey orders, and so on and so forth. Of course, it also happens that things we hear or read evoke contemplation rather than immediate overtaction. But even then, the contemplation is not external to the practice itself. The utterances are still being treated as meaningfully employed expressions. We are concerned with what is being said, rather than with something that can be identified in abstraction from the context of meaningful use.