Don't let it bother you that languages (2) and (8) [these are examples Wittgenstein had previously given in the text: 'thought-experiments' concerning languages] consist only of orders. If you want to say that they are therefore incomplete, ask yourself whether our own language is complete -- whether it was so before the symbolism of chemistry and the notation of the infinitesimal calculus were incorporated in to it; for these are, so to speak, suburbs of our language. (And how many houses or streets does it take before a town begins to be a town?) Our language can be regarded as an ancient city: a maze of little streets and squares, of old and new houses, of houses with extensions from various periods, and all this surrounded by a multitude of new suburbs with straight and regular streets and uniform houses.
- Wittgenstein, from Philosophical Investigations, §18.
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