At this stage, we understand language as follows.
Language is a system of signs, learned from others and shared within a community, by which we carry our own thoughts outside ourselves and receive the thoughts of others.
This understanding still contains several unanswered questions.
- What kind of operation is “meaning”?
- Does language precede thought, or thought precede language?
- How does language as a system (langue) relate to individual utterances (parole)?
- What separates the communication systems of other animals from human language?
v0.1 is not a framework for answering these questions but a place to begin asking them. As the research develops, this definition will be rewritten — and when it is, the reason will be recorded here.