How the English language became such a mess by James Harbeck | Duolingo French Podcast by Ngofeen Mputubwele | A Tour of the Accents of England by Dave Huxtable | Generative AI Shaping the Future by Rodney Brooks | Vietnamese used to look very different by Keit Stuff
“Not all true or false statements are descriptions… many traditional philosophical perplexities have arisen through a mistake- the mistake of taking as straightforward statements of fact utterances which are either (In interesting non-grammatical ways) nonsensical or else intended as something quite different.
[…] But it does not by any means necessarily masquerade as a statement of fact, descriptive or constative. Yet it does quite commonly do so, and that, oddly enough, when it assumes its most explicit form.
[…] Surely the words must be spoken ‘seriously’ and so as to be taken ‘seriously’? This is, though vague, true enough in general- it is important commonplace in discussing the purport of any utterance whatsoever.
[…] Language in such circumstances is in special ways-intelligibly-used not seriously, but in ways parasitic upon its normal use- ways which fall under the doctrine of the etiolations of language”
(from How To Do Things With Words by J.L. Austin)