You are correct but missing a key point: Language is indeed made up, but it works because we agree on how those made up bits are meant to be used. That’s why there have dictionaries and we are taught languages in school. So yeah, you can use any sound and word you like to communicate, but that doesn’t change the fact that the noises you are making are not “real” (as in with a communally agreed meaning).
Read the last part of my comment again. I didn’t miss it.
If two speakers agree on a new word and its meaning to the point it becomes adopted by a wider population of speakers, guess what, it becomes a standard word.
By how you’re describing it, dictionaries are the progenitors of language. You have that backwards. Dictionaries are records of the language and what words are being used.
The only languages that do not behave this way are dead languages.
You are correct but missing a key point: Language is indeed made up, but it works because we agree on how those made up bits are meant to be used. That’s why there have dictionaries and we are taught languages in school. So yeah, you can use any sound and word you like to communicate, but that doesn’t change the fact that the noises you are making are not “real” (as in with a communally agreed meaning).
Read the last part of my comment again. I didn’t miss it. If two speakers agree on a new word and its meaning to the point it becomes adopted by a wider population of speakers, guess what, it becomes a standard word. By how you’re describing it, dictionaries are the progenitors of language. You have that backwards. Dictionaries are records of the language and what words are being used.
The only languages that do not behave this way are dead languages.