Meaning of private language | Babel Free

Definitions

1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see private, language.
2. A language which expresses one's inner thoughts, feelings, or experiences but which cannot be used for communication, since it is known to and understandable by only one person—the existence of which was famously argued by Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) to be impossible.

Examples

“[T]hey could not say much because of his presence. But it did not greatly matter, for their past was now rich enough to have given them a private language; [...]”

“Every calling has its private language, clear and precise to insiders but pure babble to others.”

“They were an affluent, unstuffy, slightly bohemian family, keen on holidays and socialising, with their own Mitfordian private language.”

“In daily life, the Kallawaya use Spanish or Aymara, but when discussing the medicinal plants central to their role as healers, the men speak their own private language.”

“A private language was not merely a language contingently spoken by one person. . . . A private language was meant to be semantically and necessarily private: one whose symbols could by definition be "understood only by the speaker".”

“Back in the 1960's, art-world philosophers liked to cite Wittgenstein's contention that there can be no such thing as a private language, because the meaning of words is determined by their shared public usage.”

“But a private language—one that is spoken and understood by only one person—is a contradiction in terms. The concept of meaning is a public concept. And language is a public phenomenon.”

CEFR level