mes in immediate combination.
This raises the question how such combination into propositions comes
about.

4.2211 Even if the world is infinitely complex, so that every fact
consists of infinitely many states of affairs and every state of affairs
is composed of infinitely many objects, there would still have to be
objects and states of affairs.

4.23 It is only in the nexus of an elementary proposition that a name
occurs in a proposition.

4.24 Names are the simple symbols: I indicate them by single letters
('x', 'y', 'z'). I write elementary propositions as functions of names,
so that they have the form 'fx', 'O (x,y)', etc. Or I indicate them by
the letters 'p', 'q', 'r'.

4.241 When I use two signs with one and the same meaning, I express this
by putting the sign '=' between them. So 'a = b' means that the sign 'b'
can be substituted for the sign 'a'. (If I use an equation to introduce
a new sign 'b', laying down that it shall serve as a substitute for
a sign a that is already known, then, like Russell, I write the
equation--definition--in the form 'a = b Def.' A definition is a rule
dealing with signs.)

4.242 Expressions of the form 'a = b' are, therefore, mere
representational devices. They state nothing about the meaning of the
signs 'a' and 'b'.

4.243 Can we understand two names without knowing whether they signify
the same thing or two different things?--Can we understand a proposition
in which two names occur without knowing whether their meaning is the
same or different? Suppose I know the meaning of an English word and of
a German word that means the same: then it is impossible for me to be
unaware that they do mean the same; I must be capable of translating
each into the other. Expressions like 'a = a', and those derived from
them, are neither elementary propositions nor is there any other way in
which they have sense. (This will become evident later.)

4.25 If an elementary proposition is true, the state of affairs exists:
if an elementary proposition is false, the state of affairs does not
exist.

4.26 If all true elementary propositions are given, the result is a
complete description of the world. The world is completely described by
giving all elementary propositions, and adding which of them are true
and which false. For n states of affairs, there are possibilities of
existence and non-existence. Of these states of affairs any combination
can exist and the remainder not exi