Journal | JoLMA
Monographic journal issue | Special issue
Research Article | The Grammar of the Ordinary
The Grammar of the Ordinary
Abstract
In this paper I explore what it means to take ordinary language as the raw material of philosophy. To do so, I contrast what I call ‘grammar’ or the grammatical approach, which is characteristic of L. Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations and ‘ordinary language philosophy’ (OLP) as J.L. Austin understood it. I show that, while ‘standard’ OLP tends to focus on ‘historical situations’ understood as virtually plausible stagings of our actual uses of concepts, and thus contrasts ‘normal’ and ‘parasitic’ uses of language; the grammarian focuses on the logical possibilities of language through the invention of fictitious language-games. The latter thus extends the ‘ordinary’ up to the abnormal and the extraordinary and rather contrasts it with mere apparent uses that are no uses of language at all.
Submitted: Feb. 12, 2024 | Published Forthcoming | Language: en
Keywords Austin • <p>Wittgenstein • Ordinary Language Philosophy • Wittgenstein • Use • Use</p> • Ordinary Language • Grammar
Copyright © 2024 Valérie Aucouturier. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
