The state of a language which has no written form but exists only as spoken words. This concept was created to try to gauge the effect writing technology has on a society and more especially on its language. For example, it is thought that in oral societies the meaning and pronunciation of words changes more rapidly because it isnât fixed by the standardizing power of print. By the same token, without the mnemonic power of print oral societies make greater use of myths and songs as a way of preserving knowledge. Interestingly, the father of structuralism, Saussure, Ferdinand de, disputes both these points and argues instead for the priority of speech over writing. Further Reading: W. Ong Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word (1982). ordinary language philosophy A branch of philosophy interested in languageâs capacity for meaning. A product of the so-called linguistic turn, ordinary language philosophy treats misunderstanding in philosophy as a failure to understand language. In contrast to analytic philosophy, it does not treat with suspicion languageâs capacity for obfuscation, but sees this as one of languageâs many capabilities that philosophy ought to be able to explain. Its central claim is that meaning resides in use, that words mean what they are used to mean. The leading figures in this field are Wittgenstein, Ludwig, Gilbert Ryle, Austin, John Langshaw, and Searle, John Rogers.