Is Language Virtual?

When Words do not Live up to their Claims – ‘Grelling’s Paradox’

Kurt Grelling (1886-1942) showed the type of paradox that semantics can generate.⁸ By example, some words exhibit the properties they refer to - thus ‘short’ is a short word. Others do not - ‘long’ is not a long word – and we can call such words ‘heterological’. Now ask whether ‘heterological’ is heterological. If it is, then it is a word that does not exhibit the property it refers to, so it is not heterological (the property it refers to) after all. If it is not heterological, then it is a word that does not exhibit the property it refers to, so it fits the definition of ‘heterological’, so it is heterological. If it is, it isn’t, and if it isn’t, it is. There is the paradox. Here the veracity of language, our chief tool, for the defining of our ‘selves’ is challenged.

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