--- title: Language Games by Eli Holderness | daily.dev description: A conference talk exploring communication through the lens of linguistics and philosophy, drawing on Saussure's semiotics (signifier vs. signified),... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/language-games-by-eli-holderness-ry9qzmnsx twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Language Games by Eli Holderness | daily.dev og:description: A conference talk exploring communication through the lens of linguistics and philosophy, drawing on Saussure's semiotics (signifier vs. signified),... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/language-games-by-eli-holderness-ry9qzmnsx og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/Ry9QZMNSx.png og:image:alt: Language Games by Eli Holderness og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Language Games by Eli Holderness **[Devoxx](https://daily.dev/sources/devoxx)** · 41 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A conference talk exploring communication through the lens of linguistics and philosophy, drawing on Saussure's semiotics (signifier vs. signified), Wittgenstein's language games, and Grice's cooperative maxims. The speaker argues that programming languages are essentially language games with rules, and that domain-driven design naturally emerges from applying communication principles to software. Key practical takeaways include aligning terminology between stakeholders and code, using ADRs and documentation to establish shared context, and recognizing that the human communication side of software development remains the hardest unsolved problem — one that AI doesn't eliminate. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Language Design](https://daily.dev/posts/language-design-8a2ozjceq) · Lobsters · 3 upvotes · 0 comments - [Is the language war even real?](https://daily.dev/posts/is-the-language-war-even-real--s3jfguhzb) · DEV · 7 upvotes · 6 comments --- Tags: [#domain-driven-design](https://daily.dev/tags/domain-driven-design) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/language-games-by-eli-holderness-ry9qzmnsx) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Language Games by Eli Holderness","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/language-games-by-eli-holderness-ry9qzmnsx","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/language-games-by-eli-holderness-ry9qzmnsx"},"datePublished":"2026-04-08T19:28:35.508Z","dateModified":"2026-04-08T19:28:58.781Z","description":"A conference talk exploring communication through the lens of linguistics and philosophy, drawing on Saussure's semiotics (signifier vs. signified),...","image":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ikyPZBlOamc/sddefault.jpg","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ikyPZBlOamc/sddefault.jpg","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Devoxx","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Devoxx","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--6vG797wn--/f_auto,q_auto/v1773648800/logos/devoxx?_a=BAMAMiiu0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/devoxx"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/language-games-by-eli-holderness-ry9qzmnsx","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"domain-driven-design","timeRequired":"PT41M","video":{"@type":"VideoObject","name":"Language Games by Eli Holderness","description":"A conference talk exploring communication through the lens of linguistics and philosophy, drawing on Saussure's semiotics (signifier vs. signified),...","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ikyPZBlOamc/sddefault.jpg","uploadDate":"2026-04-08T19:28:35.508Z","duration":"PT41M","url":"https://api.daily.dev/r/Ry9QZMNSx","embedUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/embed/ikyPZBlOamc"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Devoxx","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/devoxx"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Language Games by Eli Holderness"}]} ```