ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the idea that play is critical to understanding language, i.e., coming to know what someone means by her words. Specifically, I contend that play is crucial for sorting out which context(s) a speaker and audience presuppose and that this presupposition is critical to grasping what proposition a given linguistic utterance might express. In section “Understanding as grasping: pictures, propositions, and truth conditions”, I set the stage. I proffer a brief and informal sketch of truth-theoretic semantics. In section “Context and consequences”, I follow Charles Travis and argue that context belies this model in a profoundly important way. In section “Radical contextualism and the end of language”, I argue that this extreme contextualism, if left to its own devices, undermines not only this model, but also communication, understanding, and language itself. In section “Playing, coordinating, and speaking”, I utilize a form of spontaneous reciprocity, or “play” as I define it, to both avoid extreme contextualism and help clarify contexts. In section “Some further puzzles and some playful solutions”, I further argue that such a playful account makes sense of other striking features of our ways with words. Finally, in section “Two avenues for further research”, I discuss two further avenues for research.
