What is the picture theory of language?
The picture theory of language, coined by Ludwig Wittgenstein, referred to the representational theory of languages in a non-verbal form. Spoken languages are not able to fully express the full meaning the way that a picture can. The picture theory of meaning states that statements are most meaningful when they can be defined through a visual representation.
Who is Ludwig Wittgenstein?
Ludwig Wittgenstein was an Austrian philosopher who didn't really enjoy philosophy. He spent much of his life trying to shut it down. Wittgenstein shared his ideas about language, logic, metaphysics, ethics, and how we should generally live in the world. His most notable books include the Tractatus Logico Philosophicus (1921) and the Philosophical Investigations (1953). Wittgenstein is most famous for his ideas on the picture theory of language, which basically contradicts the entire idea of philosophy itself. He was influenced by Boltzmann Hertz Schopenhauer, Frege, Russell, Kraus, Loos Weininger Spengler, and Sraffa.
How does the picture theory apply to language learning?
The picture theory refers to language getting in the way of fully describing what we see and how we understand. Though learning a new language, translations would also be a barrier to fully understanding the meaning of the first language. Therefore, ideas get lost in translation. In addition, there are literal translations and there are more meaningful, natural language ways of saying something.
Take Google Translate for example. If we use this to translate one language to the next, you'll see the mechanics of the language doesn't always translate to the full meaning.
In addition, there are certain words in languages where there simply are no equivalent word in a different language for translation. Take the word "love" in Vietnamese. Yêu usually refers to passionate love, the term typically used between partners or spouses. Thương refers to an innocent, familial love, typically used between a parent and child. In Greek, there are 8 words that refer to love: Mania: obsessive love, Storge: familial love, Philautia: love of self, Pragma: long-standing love, Agape: love for everyone, Ludus: playful love, Philia: deep friendship, and Eros: Sexual passion.
To overcome the obstacle of "translations" being inaccurate, using pictures allows us to better describe our intent. Examples of language learning software that bases its teaching style on this is Rosetta Stone.
What are some of Wittgenstein's famous quotes?
‘If people never did anything stupid, nothing intelligent would ever get done’.
‘I don’t know why we are here, but I’m pretty sure that it is not in order to enjoy ourselves’.
A picture held us captive. And we could not get outside it, for it lay in our language and language seemed to repeat it to us inexorably
‘If a lion could talk, we should not be able to understand him’,
Wittgenstein argued, because the language games of lions are too different from our own to permit understanding. It is worth noting, as an aside, that Wittgenstein’s theory does allow that lions have a language, based in the social dynamics of their hunting and mating activities. The roaring of two adult male lions, challenging each other for leadership of the pride, is arguably as much of a language gaming activity as the banter of two human rivals, each attempting to outdo the other through a play of words. We are a long way from the formalistic view of language described in the Tractatus. We have left the Platonic realm of pure logic and rediscovered the world.
To summarize, although all of his ideas up for interpretation, I believe Wittgenstein devalued language and felt it got in the way. In quora, one answer really resonated with me. It shared insight into misunderstanding when arguing over issues that likely did not have a resolution and that Wittgenstein might deduce to ‘Are we even talking about the same thing?’
If you struggle to overcome the urge to define things too carefully, or find yourself becoming obsessed about the meaning of words and their ‘true’ definition, or if you are convinced, like many philosophers, that the existence of a word logically implies some metaphysical essence, or Platonic form, that corresponds to this word, remember that what gives a word meaning is the conventional social discourse within which it is employed. By attending to the ordinary language contexts that give words their meaning, we can avoid misusing them and trying to make them mean things that they aren’t made to mean. The more that we return words to their home, seeing them in terms of the ordinary language contexts that they work within, the easier it becomes to untie the knots in language and understand what is really being said.
Source: https://philosophyforchange.wordpress.com/2014/03/11/meaning-is-use-wittgenstein-on-the-limits-of-language/
https://www.quora.com/What-was-Wittgensteins-picture-theory-of-language
https://www.quora.com/unanswered/What-is-Wittgensteins-picture-theory-of-meaning
