What is the world like?

This is a question.

It is the kind of place in which questions can be asked, the kind of place about which we can talk. Which gives it some empirical structure.

It is also like something we can say about it - if we say 'the world is real' then we can say 'it is as though the world is real'. Everything that 'is true' can also be a way that we can talk. We can say 'there are objects', and 'we can talk as though there are objects'.

When we say 'but what is the world really like?' we seem to be asking for an answer which cannot be re-rendered in this hypothetical form. The grammar of this leaves only one possibility: 'We can talk as though we can talk'.

We might also be asking for an answer which validates our capacity to ask questions and give answers, but this is confused. If I don't know whether I can ask questions and get answers, I wouldn't know whether a proper questioning and answering had taken place when I try to ask.