?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Adc&rft.title=LANGUAGE+AS+A+MIRROR+OF+THE+WORLD%3A%0AReconciling+picture+theory+and+language+games+&rft.creator=Allott%2C+Robin&rft.subject=Philosophy+of+Language&rft.description=Wittgenstein+in+the+Tractatus+focussed+on+a+picture+theory+of+language.+He+was+clear+that+this+meant+that+language+mirrored+reality%2C+mirrored+the+world.+The+picture+theory+was+an+account+in+essence+of+the+relation+between+a+word+and+what+it+referred+to+in+the+external+environment%2C+or+between+a+sentence%2C+a+proposition+or+sachverhalt+and+the+event+or+situation+to+which+it+referred.+The+Tractatus+was+completed+in+1919+and+published+in+1922.+Within+the+space+of+11+years+after+its+publication+Wittgenstein+had+abandoned+the+picture+theory+and%2C+in+the+Blue+Book+and+the+Brown+Book%2C+sketched+out+a+quite+different+account+of+language+as+a+congeries+of+language+games%2C+and+different+languages+as+different+sets+of+language+games%3B+words+were+given+their+meanings+by+use%2C+by+explanation%2C+by+training+and+essentially+by+social+interaction.+This+changed+account+took+its+definitive+form+in+the+Philosophical+Investigations%2C+posthumously+published+in+1953.+Wittgenstein+did+not+wholly+abandon+the+Tractatus+and+would+have+liked+the+Tractatus+and+his+later+writings+to+be+published+together%2C+though+this+was+never+done+before+his+early+death+(Hacker+1996).+There+is+a+problem+how+he+could+have+presented+two+such+different+accounts+of+language+with+equal+conviction.+Can+they+be+reconciled%3F+The+examination+in+much+greater+depth+of+both+may+solve+the+problem.+Since+the+Tractatus+and+the+Philosophical+Investigations%2C+there+have+been+massive+advances+in+different+but+equally+relevant+fields%3A+in+linguistics%2C+in+neurology%2C+in+philosophical+discussion%2C+in+evolutionary+theory%2C+in+psychology%2C+in+child+development.+Most+recently+and+relevantly%2C+there+has+been+the+discovery+of+mirror+neurons+(Rizzolatti+%26+Arbib+1998)%2C+neurons+which+are+excited+by+the+perception+of+action+and+which+seem+to+constitute+the+precursors+of+motor+programs+to+reproduce+the+perceived+action%2C+that+is%2C+a+plausible+basis+for+imitation+and+communication.+There+has+also+been+great+progress+in+the+study+of+the+active+brain+in+the+production+of+speech%2C+using+fMRI%2C+PET%2C+ERP%2C+MEG+and+there+are+new+ideas+on+the+motor+basis+of+speech+production+and+speech+perception%2C+on+the+relation+of+speech+and+gesture%2C+on+visual+and+auditory+perception.+The+paper+will+suggest+that+in+the+light+of+all+these+developments+Wittgenstein's+two+accounts+of+language+can+be+reconciled+within+a+larger+framework%2C+and+the+philosophy+and+science+of+language+can+profitably+be+linked+with+each+other.+&rft.date=2003-07&rft.type=Preprint&rft.type=NonPeerReviewed&rft.format=text%2Fhtml&rft.identifier=http%3A%2F%2Fcogprints.org%2F3110%2F1%2Flacus.htm&rft.identifier=++Allott%2C+Robin++(2003)+LANGUAGE+AS+A+MIRROR+OF+THE+WORLD%3A+Reconciling+picture+theory+and+language+games.++%5BPreprint%5D+++++&rft.relation=http%3A%2F%2Fcogprints.org%2F3110%2F