ABSTRACT
In what follows I will first attempt to explain how the issue of the secondary use of words is related to the main theme of Wittgenstein’s philosophy of language: the idea that the meaning of a word is its use in language. Another question is, how is secondary use related to the more common notion of metaphor? I will conclude this first part by applying Wittgenstein’s discussion of perceptual “metaphors” to contemporary scientific investigations of synesthesia. In the second part of the essay, I will turn to the concept of pretend-play, raised by him so casually in §282. Seeing this remark in the light of the preceding analysis of secondary use will enable me to apply Wittgenstein’s insights to recent theories in developmental psychology about make-believe or pretend-play.
