§3. THE THREE PREDICATES 19
symbols be created and used by man. It sometimes happens that large stones decay, through atmospheric action, in such a way that they assume the form of certain words; these words have a meaning, although they were not made by men. But the case is still special in so far as these symbols correspond to the rules of ordinary language. It might also happen that forms, obtained by natural processes, would convey European history to us if a certain new system of rules were added—although that does not seem to be very probable. There would still be the question of whether we could find these rules. But very frequently we invent new systems of rules for certain special purposes for which special symbols are needed. The signposts and lights in use for the regulation of motor traffic form a system of symbols different from ordinary language in symbols and rules. The system of rules is not a closed class; it is continuously being-enlarged according to the requirements of life. We must therefore distinguish between known or unknown symbolic characters, between actual and virtual symbols. The first are the only important ones, since only actual symbols are employed, and therefore the word “symbol” is used in the sense of “actual symbol” or “symbol in use.” It is obvious that a symbol acquires this character not by inner qualities but by the rules of language and that any physical thing may acquire the function of a symbol if it fulfils certain given rules of language, or if suitable rules are established.
§ 3. The three predicates of propositions
After this characterization of language in its general aspect, we must now proceed to a view of the internal structure of language.
The first salient feature we observe here is that symbols follow one another in a linear arrangement, given by the
