I grew up in a family speaking three different languages. When I wanted an apple and I couldn't remember the right word I'd just say maçã or manzana. My mom new what I meant so she gave me some fruit. When I went to school and pulled that shit, my teachers said I need to stop making up words or go to speech therapy. I wasn't really making up words--they were real words, yet people thought I had some condition. To me, these words made sense--and when I didn't get what I'd want, then I'd become frustrated and naturally throw a tantrum.
As childish as that may sound I still see this today. When people are trying to talk to each other and the other person doesn't get it they'll try a couple of things: first they'll repeat, maybe the words weren't clear or you had too much saliva in your mouth; second, they'll modify the information to make it easier to understand for the person they're talking to--sometimes the other person says they get it, but really don't, so the conversation moves on very awkwardly with both parties slightly confused at what was said. On less mundane levels of communication, say argument, one person will present their point of view and if it isn't communicated effectively they will, again, repeat and modify. Sometimes the second person will say they understand what is being said but then say something like, "Okay fine, but why would you do that?" or "I see what you're saying but I disagree" (which could very well be true), or "Your an idiot. That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. How the hell did you get into college?" The result of this is usually anger, perhaps a heated debate eventually leading to creation vs evolution, a complete closing off of one of the parties, or maybe even a full scale French Revolution-esque uprising. I don't know. I'm not saying effective communication is the key to getting everyone to agree with you--that would be sweet, but very unlikely. I'm saying that with the right communication you will be able to understand why people think what they think.
Words bring things into being but it's people that make those words. Something is there, we add a word to it, and now that word is suppose to have that original meaning forever. Yeah right. History changes words, moods change words, inflection changes words, rappers change words. Even if you've been speaking a language all your life, you're never going to know a "neutral" meaning of any word. Why do you think people find different things funny or sad? Why do you think dictionaries give multiple definitions? Why do you think we have more than one dictionary at all?
Robin said science is made by humans. As much as some of you people that get boners from science wanna say that science is the only truth--Robin's sorta right--I mean, we tied all these words that are very stylized and have extremely ambiguous meanings to nature, call them "observations" and turn them into Laws of Science. Physicists are beginning to question Newton's Law of Gravity. WTF? Yeah I know. Any scientist or student that has been in a lab will tell you that it's impossible to say exactly what you're seeing--you don't know the right words, there's not enough room, or it's just not really worth anyones time. Our chat about the definition apotemnophelia is a perfect example--best definition for whom? Why a Greek name? Because it sounds better? What the hell does that mean?
Sassure said something like "words are simply sound patterns that are arbitrarily connected to images in our heads and things in the world" So what's the answer? Telekenesis? ...Maybe. Obama-like rhetoric? Probably. Legilimency? That's my guess.
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