A Philosophical Study Of The Compatibility Of Sentences In Wittgenstein’s Language Game

Both Wittgenstein and Rhees mention the importance of constructing appropriate sentences and giving appropriate replies, which indicates a certain kind of relation among sentences in conversations. Thus the present study attempts to develop Wittgenstein’s thought by specifying and concretizing certain conceptions mentioned by Wittgenstein and Rhees. And the central issue is the sentence compatibility. Thus, the present study attempts to clarify the conception of sentence compatibility through the detailed exploration into the degree and mechanism of sentence compatibility.In the present study, the sentence compatibility in language game is divided into the symbolic compatibility elements, the perceptual compatibility elements, the imaginary compatibility elements and the contextual compatibility elements. Based on the classification of compatibility elements, the sentences with compatibility are divided into the form-based compatibility and the meaning-based compatibility. Through the analysis of the categorization of compatibility elements and sentences with compatibility, the degree of sentence compatibility is discussed and includes three situations:the monocompatibility, the noncompatibility and the polycompatibility. With the detailed observation of some typical examples, the mechanism of sentence compatibility is disclosed as the activation and operation of the compatibility elements through different activation paths. There are not so many researches on the effective components which can participate in the discourse or conversation, let alone the connections between context and sentence or relations among sentences. The present study is inspired by the coherence theory of truth. And the theoretical preliminaries of this thesis are Wittgenstein’s theory of language game and unity of common intelligibility.This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter one briefly introduces the research background, research questions, purpose of the study, significance of the research and the layout of the thesis. Chapter two firstly presents the definitions of key terms including compatibility, common intelligibility and language game. Then it makes a brief review of the existing studies on the relative issues so as to work out what has been done and what needs to be done in sentence compatibility. Chapter three provides the major theoretical preliminaries namely Wittgenstein’s theory of language game and unity of common intelligibility. Besides, this chapter will analyze the relation between context and common intelligibility and the possibility of common intelligibility. Taking the investigation of the previous four parts as the basis, the mechanism for compatibility is revealed and established. Chapter four carries on a detailed analysis of the sentence compatibility covering the classification of compatibility elements and the categorization of sentences with compatibility. The degree of sentence compatibility is discussed with the application the mechanism for compatibility. Chapter five draws the conclusion and shows the findings and implications of the present study. Moreover, the limitations and prospects for the further study are proposed.