Language is often considered a pretty concrete thing. When I say the word “baseball bat”, most people who speak English assume to know what those words mean. No one is thinking of a flying rodent pitching a baseball. However, language is only part of how we know the world around us and often relying too heavily on language can result in misunderstandings.
First, an introduction to linguistics may be in order. A word or group of words that form a single idea is called a signifier. This means that words signify some concept in a person’s mind. A “tree” for example is the signifier to a particular genus of plant. However, within this one signifier is a plethora of other denoting signifiers like trunk, leaves, branches, roots, color, shape, size, soil... etc. In his “Blue Book” Ludwig Wittgenstein said that to know one part of a language is to know all of it (at least conceptually). This conception of a word or group of words is called the signified and the process is called signifying.
Now, let us come to the fun part of language where misunderstandings happen. Misunderstandings usually occur to a words ambiguity (having more than one signified concept) or vagueness (having a mostly ignorant concept of a word). Justice in Plato’s “The Republic” fits the concept of vagueness. When someone says Justice, most of the people in Plato’s work are at a loss on how to define the word. What ends up happening is a who competing concepts of the word Justice begin to emerge from might makes right to everyone getting what they deserve. These competing concepts of justice reveal that sometimes the vagueness of a word is due to the ambiguity of the connotations that come with a word. A connotation of a word is a specie or specific application of a word. For example, a peach tree, a maple tree, or an apple tree can connote the word “tree”. The word tree can also take on subjective concepts like feelings or telos (ends or purpose) for each individual person.
How can one then avoid misunderstanding? It is mostly impossible, really. The best that people can hope for is to avoid the wall of misunderstanding when misunderstandings arise. The wall of misunderstanding occurs when one side completely shuts out the other side’s point of view, which is often the result of generalities. Let’s go back to our justice argument. One side said “Might makes right” while the other said “When a person gets what they deserve”. Might both arguments be right in a sense? Imagine a world where only the unjust were powerful and could do as they please without any consequence or moral compass. Such a world would obviously be a bad one. No one would be able to get what they deserve. So might is a factor in justice. However, if it were the sole factor of justice, then, how would one measure might. By usefulness in maintaining power one would suppose. If a person does not have the skill and talent to maintain a country, then all the might makes right will result in a better able ruler to come and take the power. Sure, one might be great at military power, but there is also economic power, cultural power, and to be more powerful means one must be more useful and thus deserving of the power.
This where we come into what is called a language game. The goal of the language game is first to understand the rules of the game so both people can then play it. This requires that all parties understand each others’ arguments and what their logic, emotion, and ethical point of view they are working with. The basic rule is first understand, then be understood. Once you understand where someone is coming from on the multiple levels of language, then you can figure out what they really want. Sometimes this will require you to be less logical and more emotionally understanding. If someone is ranting, for example, understand that the argument carries a lot of emotional weight. Sometimes people are more interested in being right (retaining their honor) than their argument being true (that there argument in accord with reality). Long internet debates are often the result of egos clashing. There is more honor than truth on the Internet. But that is the language game and understanding what game one is playing can help to avoid or manage misunderstandings when they arise and can even tell a person which game is even worth playing.
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