ABSTRACT
In the view of pragmatic constructivism, language, including accounting, plays a crucial part in the construction of functioning practices. This chapter focuses on what should characterise management and accounting language if it is to contribute to successful reality constructions. If language games are governed by a "hermeneutics of suspicion" due to the assumption that all actors are engaging in strategic language practice, then the ability to establish realistic or veridical predictions about our common future is essentially hampered. Pragmatic constructivism agrees with Ludwig Wittgenstein's rejection of the realist assumption that a concept has one universal or intrinsic meaning that can be established across time and space. Furthermore, it shares the Wittgensteinian idea that people use local language games to create social actions and intentions. The realist language form, which in particular has shown its pragmatic use within the natural science domain, may also take the form of an illusion.
