We assume that when people use words, those words have some kind of meaning.\u00a0 When we don’t know the meaning of a word, we consult the dictionary.\u00a0 The dictionary provides a definition for the word.\u00a0 That definition is supposed to help guide understanding about what that word meant when that person said it.<\/p>\n
Truth be told, it is\u00a0not dictionaries that write what other people say.\u00a0 Instead, people use words, and they happen to use them in historically measureable ways, at least on the whole.\u00a0 “Enough people” use a word in a particular way, then it may meet the criteria for entry into a dictionary with a definition that generally matches historical use to that publication date.<\/p>\n
But a dictionary does not account for what this particular word means in this particular situation.\u00a0 In fact, a word can assume a meaning independent of the dictionary’s meaning.\u00a0 While this notion may be a no-brainer to you, from my experience, people who would regard themselves as quite intelligent don’t think a word can mean something other than what’s in the dictionary.\u00a0 Use a word in a way deviant from dictionary meaning, and said person would reject your meaning before allowing it, on the grounds that the definition is not in the dictionary.<\/p>\n
Meaning and definition could be thought of as implications<\/em>.\u00a0 That is, a word implies particular ideas, and those implications<\/em> are called “meanings”\u00a0and\u00a0they’re also called “definitions.”\u00a0 If we think of words as having implications, we realize a little bit better that context can affect the implications of a word.\u00a0 Say the word “nigger” in a linguistics class, there’s a set of implications; say “nigger” on the street in the South and there’s another set of implications.\u00a0 What’s implied by the word in one context is not necessarily implied in the next context.\u00a0 This understanding helps to defeat any preconceptions that words have definite, unwavering meanings.\u00a0 Instead, they have variable implications.<\/p>\n Thinking sonically, a word is but a sound.\u00a0 It is recognized by humans as a symbol.\u00a0 As a symbol, it is assumed to imply something.\u00a0 That is, it’s assumed that the sound is intended to bring something to mind.\u00a0 I say “grasshopper” outloud; you hear what sounds like the word “grasshopper”; you look on your shoulder in case you see one perched there.\u00a0 If you see a spider instead, you are perhaps more surprised than when you see a grasshopper.\u00a0 A spider wasn’t implied by the sound “grasshopper.”<\/p>\n Thinking graphically, a word is but a blot.\u00a0 It also is recognized by humans as a symbol.\u00a0 And just like a sonic word, the graphic word is assumed to imply something.\u00a0 Something comes to mind when a human reads a word.\u00a0 I write “grasshopper” and you think grasshopper, or maybe you think of more words like “cricketlike thing.”\u00a0 You probably do the latter if you have never seen a grasshopper.<\/p>\n That is, a word can have an extensional implication or an intensional implication.\u00a0 Extensional implications are actual things, behaviors, people, places, etc.,\u00a0that words imply.\u00a0 Intensional implications are just other words that words imply.\u00a0 If I write “Austin,” an extension is your pointing it out on a map, while an intension would be the phrase “the capital of Texas.”\u00a0 Note that an intension is just a special case of extension: Intension is when the actual thing you’re pointing to\u00a0is other words<\/em>.<\/p>\n What’s interesting to note in addition to the above is that implications vary from person to person.\u00a0 I might say “indigo,” and that word may imply a set of specific\u00a0ideas to a fashion designer, yet other things to a fashionably illiterate person.\u00a0 (I joke that men just don’t have concepts of colors like “fuchsia,” “indigo,” and whatnot.\u00a0 We just call them “pink,” “purple,” etc.)\u00a0 Implications are not absolute; they are variable, varying from person to person.<\/p>\n Furthermore, implications may be contrary to standard definitions (implications) of terms.\u00a0 A teenager may say, “I don’t have any friends,” not realizing she’s saying this to a decent\u00a0friend.\u00a0 But while the decent friend might point this contradiction out, the decent friend might have been implied in the teenager’s statement as an exception.\u00a0 Granted, these are the\u00a0stupid verbalizations\u00a0that general semantics tries to dismantle; general semantics tries to get people to talk more accurately about empircal reality.\u00a0 But I’m saying that some face-value statements may have implications that are contrary to their standard meanings.\u00a0 Flash back to the 1980s and see what answer you get to Michael Jackson’s question “Who’s bad?” and see if you get a list of criminals, or a list of cool people who might otherwise be considered quite “good.”<\/p>\n This post explains the power of the notion of implication.\u00a0 Definitions and meanings are but two types of implications.\u00a0 What others are implied from this post?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We assume that when people use words, those words have some kind of meaning.\u00a0 When we don’t know the meaning of a word, we consult the dictionary.\u00a0 The dictionary provides a definition for the word.\u00a0 That definition is supposed to help guide understanding about what that word meant when that person said it. Truth be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[9,290,157,277,158,10],"class_list":["post-1150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-semantics","tag-definition","tag-dictionary","tag-extension","tag-implication","tag-intension","tag-meaning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benhauck.com\/offthemap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benhauck.com\/offthemap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benhauck.com\/offthemap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benhauck.com\/offthemap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benhauck.com\/offthemap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1150"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/benhauck.com\/offthemap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1153,"href":"https:\/\/benhauck.com\/offthemap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1150\/revisions\/1153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benhauck.com\/offthemap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benhauck.com\/offthemap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benhauck.com\/offthemap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}