Philosophical Grammar 121

121. That a picture tells me something consists in its own form and colours. Or it narrates something to me: it uses words so to speak, and I am comparing the picture with a combination of linguistic forms. – That a series of signs tells me something isn’t constituted by its now making this impression on me. “It’s only in a language that something is a proposition.”

‘That a picture tells me something consists in its own form and colours.’?

yes – it is a non-linguistic proposal – a non-linguistic proposition

‘…and I am comparing the picture with a combination of linguistic forms’?

effectively we have a linguistic description of another propositional form

‘That a series of signs tells me something isn’t constituted by its now making this impression on me’

this series of signs is a proposal – a proposition – in a non-linguistic form

I can describe its effect in a linguistic proposal – a linguistic proposition

‘It’s only in a language that something is a proposition’?

not so –

a proposition is a proposal – and a proposal can take any number of forms

i.e. a proposal can be a form of words – a painting – a piece of music – dance – a sculpture – a city building – etc –

in fact anything that human beings create is a proposal – is a proposition –

and as such open to question – open to doubt – uncertain

© greg t. charlton. 2015.