The argument of the paper is as follows:

1. The study of language, like the study of mathematical systems, has always been thought to be relevant to the study of forms of argument in science. Language as the scientist uses it, however, is assumed to be potentially interlingual, conceptual and classificatory. This fact makes current philosophical methods of studying language irrelevant to the philosophy of science.

2. An alternative method of analysing language is proposed. This is that we should take as a model for language the classification system of a great library. Such a classification system is described.

3. Classification systems of this kind, however, tend to break down because of the phenomena of profusion of meaning, extension of meaning and overlap of meaning in actual languages. The librarian finds that empirically based semantic aggregates (overlapping clusters of meanings) are forming within the system. These are defined as concepts. By taking these aggregates as units, the system can still be used to classify.

4. An outline sketch is given of a mathematical model of language, language being taken as a totality of semantic aggregates. Language, thus considered, forms a finite lattice. A procedure for retrieving information within the system is described.

5. The scientific procedures of phrase-coining, classifying and analogy-finding are described in terms of the model.

The point of relevance of the study of language to the philosophy of science

Two very general disciplines have always been thought especially relevant to our understanding of the nature of science.