ABSTRACT
The relationship between the language and the world is at the core of epistemology. It has been probed into from various philosophical angles, which have suggested as many ways of seeing it. In this chapter I shall limit my discussion to some areas that have particular pertinence for anthropology. My approach is pragmatic in the sense that I aim at identifying current concerns of anthropology as practice, rather than at tracing the history of anthropological thought about language. This, of course, is related to my wish to expand on the present. My principal focus in this chapter is on local or natural language, but it reflects back upon anthropological language as well.
