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The Picture Theory of Language - by Vasco - Type 1 Type 2

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I remember a physicist friend having a mild panic attack when he realised that people, generally, had a very scant understanding of physics. “But how do they get around in the world!?”, he wailed. We calmed him down and let him know that people have a sort of “folk theory” of physics which, for their purposes, is good enough. Object falls, hot things make other things hot, you can’t walk through a wall. Close enough. Over the past 11 posts of this series we’ve been documenting a lot of… weird aspects of language: Names can kill what they describe; They can breathe new life into old; Changing them changes how people react to the same thing. You can use them to dismiss; and to demand compliance. How come these are the case, like, at all? Why do names have such strange, quizzical powers? My suggestion is that it’s for the same reason that had our physicist friend panic: the same way people have a folk theory of physics they have a folk theory of language. However, while most people don’t

The Picture Theory of Language People are wrong about names and that Matters Nov 13, 2025 5 Share I remember a physicist friend having a mild panic attack when he realised that people, generally, had a very scant understanding of physics. “But how do they get around in the world!?”, he wailed. We calmed him down and let him know that people have a sort of “folk theory” of physics which, for their purposes, is good enough. Object falls, hot things make other things hot, you can’t walk through a wall. Close enough. Over the past 11 posts of this series we’ve been documenting a lot of… weird aspe

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