I just have to do this so I stop thinking about doing it. (See also
Lucy Suchman on the situated-ness of meaning and communication.)
Now think of the following use of language: I send someone shopping. I give him a slip marked "👋🏾 🌞 🍥s". He takes the slip to the shopkeeper, who opens the drawer marked "🍥s"; then he looks up the word "🌞" in a table and finds a colour sample opposite it; then he says the series of cardinal numbers—I assume that he knows them by heart—up to the word "👋🏾" and for each number he takes an 🍥 of the same colour as the sample out of the drawer.——It is in this and similar ways that one operates with words.——"But how does he know where and how he is to look up the word '🌞' and what he is to do with the word '👋🏾'?"——Well, I assume that he acts as I have described. Explanations come to an end somewhere.—But what is the meaning of the word "👋🏾"?—No such thing was in question here, only how the word "👋🏾" is used.
—Wℹ️ttgensteℹ️n, Philosophical Investigations I.
👋🏾👋🌞🎃🍥
(The original, which really shouldn’t be necessary: Now think of the following use of language: I send someone shopping. I give him a slip marked "five red apples". He takes the slip to the shopkeeper, who opens the drawer marked "apples"; then he looks up the word "red" in a table and finds a colour sample opposite it; then he says the series of cardinal numbers—I assume that he knows them by heart—up to the word "five" and for each number he takes an apple of the same colour as the sample out of the drawer.——It is in this and similar ways that one operates with words.——"But how does he know where and how he is to look up the word 'red' and what he is to do with the word 'five'?"——Well, I assume that he acts as I have described. Explanations come to an end somewhere.—But what is the meaning of the word "five"?—No such thing was in question here, only how the word "five" is used.