Re: the Maligned Art

David wrote concerning the "social activity" of a language as being necessary
in order to classify a conlang as a "real language"

Although I hesitated to join in on this thread (too philosophical for me, a
non-linguist), I will say this:

If I create a tool that looks like, is capable of acting like, has all the
properties of, a hammer, can one say that it is NOT a hammer until someone
actually uses it as such?

In other words, are our hardware stores populated by "hammer-looking" objects
that have yet to "earn" their "hammerhood" by being bought and used?

Is a house a not a house until it is inhabited, or is it just a potential
house? Is is not a "real" house until someone moves in? It seems to me that
any object can be characterised as a certain object if it has the required
attributes defining that object and the capacity to function as that object
whether or not that potential is yet realised.

Jim H