4.21 The
simplest kind of proposition, an elementary proposition, asserts the
existence of a state of affairs.
4.211 It is a sign of a proposition's being elementary that there can be no
elementary proposition contradicting it.
4.22 An elementary proposition consists of names. It is a nexus, a
concatenation, of names.
4.221 It is obvious that the analysis of propositions must bring us to
elementary propositions which consist of names 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.
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