We said that the sentence, “Nothung has a sharp edge”, has

sense
meaning

even

when
if

Nothung has already been broken to pieces. Now th[at|is] is so because in this language game a name is also used in the absence of its bearer. Butw we can imagine a language game with names (

that is,
i.e.

[i|w]ith signs

which
that

we should certainly also call “names”) in which names are used only in the presence of their bearers. Suppose, say, [f|t]hat we were watching a surface on which coloured spots were are mov[i|e]ng ˇabout (as on the screen

in
of

a cinema). There are three such spots, which slowly change their shapes and positions. Suppose I ha[d|ve] named them “P”, “Q” and “R” by giving os[e|t]ensive definitions. Our

Our language describes the changes of these three, and

we use
I say to you

sentences like, : “Do you see how P is contracting now and is approaching R?”. – Now in this language

the
these

names are supposed to be used as synonyms for the demonstrative pronoun “this” together with (the plus pointing to a coloured spot). ˇThus [i|I]f one of the three spots disappears, then I may can't say “P has disappeared” – any more than I should say “this has disappeared” – but we ˇmight say rather, “[T|t]he letter ‘[p|P]’ drops is out of use”.
In this language

you
we

can
maych

say, a name loses its meaning

when
if

its bearer ceases to exist, and the ˇthere is something words signs words ˇwhich corresponds to the words “P”, “Q” and “R” always have something corresponding to them as long as they have any meaning – use in the/language game – at all. (For in the sentence, “‘P’ drops is out⌊”⌋ of use, the sign ““‘P’”” occurs, but not “P”; and I assume that we do'_n[o|']t speak about past

events
occurrences

or else
or

use
here

another some mode of expression

for them
for it

.) In this language game, then, a name canno't cease to have a bearer; only this isn't any advantage asset of the language game[,| ;] for even when it hasn't a bearer a name may can have a purpose, use, i.e. meaningˇ without having a bearer. (ˇAnd [T|t]hus, ˇe.g., the name “Odysseus” has meaning.) for instance.)

(2015–) Wittgenstein Source Bergen Nachlass Edition (WS-BNE). Edited by the Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Bergen under the direction of Alois Pichler. In: Wittgenstein Source, curated by Alois Pichler (2009–) and Joseph Wang-Kathrein (2020–). (N) Bergen: WAB.