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The rules that we've looked at so far 
apply to every use of language. 

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But we want to focus on those rules that 
are important specifically to arguments. 

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At least normally, 
misspelling, or mispronouncing a word 

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doesn't affect an argument. 
Of course, if you pronounce one word so 

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that it sounds like another word, it can 
be very confusing and people won't 

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understand you, 
or if you misspell it so badly they don't 

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know what word you wanted, the arguments 
not going to work. 

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but normally misspelling and 
mispronunciation don't make the argument 

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bad. 
Instead, 

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what affects the argument is what's going 
to affect the proposition that's going to 

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express the meaning of the sentence, 
because that going that's going effect 

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whether the premises justifies the 
conclusion of or, whether they explain 

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the conclusion, and so we need to focus 
on those rules of language which that in 

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particular deal with the meanings of 
words of sentences. 

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So what's meaning? 
Well, one thing I can tell you is we're 

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not going to be talking about the meaning 
of life in this course. 

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The meaning of life is a totally 
different topic. 

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We're also not going to be talking about 
whether clouds mean rain, in the sense of 

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giving some indication or evidence that 
there's going to be rain. 

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We're concerned with the meanings of 
words and sentences in language. 

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We're concerned with linguistic meaning 
in particular. 

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So, how are we going to understand 
linguistic meaning? 

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Well, one way to think about the meanings 
of words and sentences is to ask how you 

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would explain them to someone who doesn't 
understand them, like a small child or 

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someone who doesn't speak this language. 
Well, if somebody said, 

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what's the meaning of the word chair, 
you might go well, when I use the word 

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chair, I'm referring to these things, 
you know, something like this. 

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and when I say I am sitting on the chair 
what I mean is my body is above the 

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chair. 
And so, that approach to teaching 

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language suggests to many people that 
what words mean is the same as what they 

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refer to. 
and what sentences mean are the facts 

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that they try to describe. 
Now that view of language is often called 

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the referential or descriptive view of 
language. 

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So is this referential or descriptive 
theory adequate? 

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No, no, no, no, absolutely not. 
That theory does not cover a lot of 

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language that's extremely important. 
Just think about greeting someone in the 

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morning. 
Hello. 

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Are you referring to an object when you 
say hello? 

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Or think about the word not in a, in a 
sentence, 

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and that, the word not is going to be 
crucial to arguments. 

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But does the word not refer to something, 
separate from the other things? 

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Well if it did, then there would be more 
objects in the room when I'm not sitting 

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on the chair than when I am sitting on 
the chair. 

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So you cannot understand the meanings of 
many words, like hello, or not, or for 

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that matter am, or sitting. 
Many words don't fit this referential or 

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descriptive theory of meaning. 
So, if meaning is not referential 

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description, what is it? 
Well, here were going to take our cue 

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from Ludwig Wittgenstein, the great 20th 
century Austrian philosopher, who argued 

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that meaning is use. 
If you want to understand the meaning of 

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the word hello, you don't look for some 
object that it refers to, you ask how is 

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it used? 
And the answer's obvious, it's used to 

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greet people. 
If you want to understand the meaning of 

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the question, where's the library? 
The answer is, well, a question is used 

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to inquire about the library, to ask 
where the library is. 

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If you want to understand the meaning of 
an imperative like, give me a pizza, then 

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that is a way of ordering a pizza. 
You're using that phrase to order a 

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pizza. 
So the meaning of the phrase is given by 

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the way those words are used in normal 
situations by competent speakers of the 

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language. 
Now this point about meaning being used 

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is very important, to the language of 
argument. 

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As we saw, the word not does not refer to 
an additional object. 

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And the same goes for the word and"," 
when you say I am sitting in the chair 

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and I am in the office. The word and 
doesn't refer to an object either. 

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So if we want to understand what the word 
and is used to do then we have to think 

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about what people do with it. 
And what they do is they conjoin 

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different sentences. 
They don't add an extra object or an 

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extra fact. 
They just conjoin sentences, and form a 

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whole sentence out of two parts, 
each of which was a sentence to begin 

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with. 
And when we look more closely at the uses 

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of language, we see that language is used 
in a lot of different ways. 

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Use is diverse. 
Just take a simple example. 

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I'd like to give you a little piece of 
personal advice. 

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You ought to floss your teeth every day. 
So what did I just do? 

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I uttered a bunch of words. 
I made physical motion in the air. 

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But in addition, those words were 
meaningful. You ought to floss your teeth 

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every day. 
Each of those words is meaningful in the 

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language, 
and I put them together in an order that 

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was grammatical. 
So, the whole thing makes sense. 

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When you make a meaningful utterance like 
that, we're going to say you perform a 

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linguistic act, 
and there's a linguistic level of the use 

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of language that we will study in one 
lecture, the next lecture. 

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But in addition, when I said you ought to 
floss your teeth everyday, 

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I also gave you a piece of friendly 
advice. 

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I advised you, 
and notice that even if you don't follow 

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my advice, I still advised you. 
And, if you don't follow my advice and 

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your teeth rot out, then I can say, Look, 
you should've listened to me, because I 

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advised you to floss your teeth every 
day. 

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So the speech act level occurs even when 
it doesn't affect your actions at all. 

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That's the second level of use of 
language, the speech act level, and we'll 

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talk about that in more detail two 
lectures from now. 

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The third level of language has to do 
with the production of certain effects. 

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Maybe when I say you ought to floss your 
teeth every day, I persuade you. 

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And what that means is, I bring about a 
certain effect on your behavior, or your 

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thought, or your attitudes. 
Well, that's what we're going to call the 

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conversational level, and conversational 
acts are the acts of bringing about those 

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effects, and persuasion is one example. 
So now we have three levels of language. 

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We have the linguistic level which is the 
meaningful utterance, producing a 

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meaningful utterance. 
We have the speech-act level, advising is 

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a nice paradigm of that which can be 
accomplished even if it, you're not 

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persuaded. 
And we have persuading you, which is the 

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conversational level. 
So there's the linguistic level, the 

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speech-act level, and the conversational 
level. 

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And each of these levels will be explored 
in more detail in one of the next three 

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lectures. 
But here's a little warning, and you have 

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a choice. 
The material in the next three lectures 

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is a little bit more abstract and 
difficult than some of the things we've 

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been through so far. 
Now, I think it's fascinating and we're 

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going to try to make it fun. 
And it's really important to understand 

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how your language works. 
But it's not absolutely essential to the 

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things that we're going to cover in the 
rest of this course. 

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So, it's up to you. 
You can listen to these three lectures if 

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you want, 
and there will be some exercises 

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throughout those lectures that will test 
your understanding, 

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but none of that materials going to be on 
the quiz. 

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So you can listen to the next three 
lectures, and I hope you do and I hope 

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you enjoy them, 
but you don't have to in order to be able 

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to go through the rest of the course and 
do well on the quiz at the end of this 

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part.