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Faced with the nonsense question "What is the meaning of a word?" and perhaps dimly recognizing it to be nonsense, we are nevertheless not inclined to give it up.

— J. L. Austin Philosophical Papers (1979)

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More quotes by J. L. Austin

Why should it not be the whole function of a word to denote many things?

Philosophical Papers (1979)

However well equipped our language, it can never be forearmed against all possible cases that may arise and call for description: fact is richer than diction.

Philosophical Papers (1979)

'What is truth?' said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer.

It may justly be urged that, properly speaking, what alone has meaning is a sentence.

Philosophical Papers (1979)

Ordinary language blinkers the already feeble imagination.

Philosophical Papers (1979)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: J. L. Austin (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.