My take is that you can’t define term X until you know why you’re trying to define term X.
For example, if someone asks what “language” is, instead of trying to jump in with an answer, it’s better to step back and ask why the person is asking the question.
For example, if someone asks “How many languages do you know?”, they probably aren’t asking about simple schemes like “one click = yes, two clicks = no”. On the other hand, it may make sense to talk about such simple schemes in an introductory course on “human languages”.
Asking “Well what really is language?” independent of any context is naive.
My take is that you can’t define term X until you know why you’re trying to define term X.
For example, if someone asks what “language” is, instead of trying to jump in with an answer, it’s better to step back and ask why the person is asking the question.
For example, if someone asks “How many languages do you know?”, they probably aren’t asking about simple schemes like “one click = yes, two clicks = no”. On the other hand, it may make sense to talk about such simple schemes in an introductory course on “human languages”.
Asking “Well what really is language?” independent of any context is naive.