. Wittgenstein discussed the way language works by inventing small-scale languages for special spheres, such as house-building, and asking how they might work and what they must be like. Comparing them to certain children’s games he called them...

L.Wittgenstein’s term referring to complex units of communication that consist of linguistic and non-linguistic activities (e.g. the giving of and complying with commands in the course of collaborating on the building of a house). Signs, words,...

System of language artificially constructed to keep communication secret (e.g. in political resistance movements), to separate a group of secret language speakers from the society at large, or to express solidarity within such a group. The languages of...

Different word forms can emerge from rapid speech when compared with slow speech. For example, perhaps in clearly articulated slow speech becomes ‘praps’ in rapid...

A language game (also called secret language or ludling) is a system of manipulating spoken words to render them incomprehensible to the untrained ear. Language games are used primarily by groups attempting to conceal their conversations from others....