This chapter rests on one idea. Here it is, as plainly as it will ever be stated.

A word's meaning is its position among other words.

Not a definition stored in a box. Not a label. A place, sitting in a vast space, surrounded by neighbours. "Dog" means what it means because of who it sits near (puppy, bark, leash) and who it sits far from (turnip, Tuesday, gravity). Move it somewhere else and you would have changed what it means.

Company was an argument before. Position is a measurement: actual coordinates, actual distances, actual directions you can walk.