Abstract

In this article, we are going to analyse the role of context in disambiguating languages. In particular, we are going to read again under this perspective some parts of three works: Schtroumpf und Drang (1983); Philosophische Untersuchungen (1953) and Forms of Talk (1981). We are going to start from the famous words by Umberto Eco in the essay Schtroumpf und Drang (1983) on the semiotic value of smurf stories in relation to contextual functioning of language. In the second part of the work, the semiotic complexity of the smurf neolanguage will be reinterpreted through the notions of forms of life and linguistic game, used by Ludwig Wittgenstein since the posthumous publication of Untersuchungen (1953). This dialogue between Eco’s semiotics and Wittgenstein’s philosophy of language will take place in the framework of Goffman’s symbolic interactionism (1987).