The meaning of words change with time. Now we all know this...However, the reality is a little different.
Each word is made up of two things.
The first is the formal meaning attached to the word. In modern times this appears in dictionaries.
The second is the emotional content attached to the word. This varies across time and space and between groups. We have to infer this from context....where the emotional overlays attached to the word vary over time and between countries.
These varying and changing meanings create two quite distinct problems...They can impede our understanding of the past. But they also affect the way our readers interpret what we write, because they impose their own meaning upon our words.
We know this, but we do not always understand it.
Each word is made up of two things.
The first is the formal meaning attached to the word. In modern times this appears in dictionaries.
The second is the emotional content attached to the word. This varies across time and space and between groups. We have to infer this from context....where the emotional overlays attached to the word vary over time and between countries.
These varying and changing meanings create two quite distinct problems...They can impede our understanding of the past. But they also affect the way our readers interpret what we write, because they impose their own meaning upon our words.
We know this, but we do not always understand it.
Click here for full discourse.
PS: I came across this brilliant piece while randomly surfing the Net. Okay, not so random because I was upset with TBF's use of the word 'insinuate' in his comment about my last post. Though never a sociology student, I remember reading something on culture and language in uni and well, let's just say that I have to prove something. But whatever it was that I so badly wanted to establish an hour ago is quite fuzzy to me now. *LOL*
1 comment:
dont want to talk already if it is this difficult...
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