Throughout the socratic seminar that we had in class, I noticed that a good amount of our discussion was spent arguing about the meaning of "hero" and "rights".
So my question is, if everyone interprets words differently, why do dictionaries exist?
Tis question intrigued me and I started thinking and I came up with these two ideas: 1. Mr. Webster is a smart dude and we take his word for it when he tells us the meanings of things. 2. Every word has many meanings, but dictionaries only discuss the "concrete" and common definitions. However in context, words can mean so many different things, and it is all in the subtleties in how a word is being used. So dictionaries exist to tell us the basic meanings of words, but it is up to us to choose how we are to use them. Basically we can use a word but the definition can be adjusted according to how it is used in the particular sentence it is being used in. this is my humble opinion.
i agree with chris. Many words can have different meanings and different interpretations, but dictionaries do settle on what is most common. the only thing that i think that could make Dictionaries more flexible would be more in- depth examples. "if used in this way blah blah blah", "if the stress is on this syllable it means blah blah blah", "if it is said in this tone blaaaaaaaaaahhhhh". all in all, dictionaries can only do so much
Tis question intrigued me and I started thinking and I came up with these two ideas:
ReplyDelete1. Mr. Webster is a smart dude and we take his word for it when he tells us the meanings of things.
2. Every word has many meanings, but dictionaries only discuss the "concrete" and common definitions. However in context, words can mean so many different things, and it is all in the subtleties in how a word is being used. So dictionaries exist to tell us the basic meanings of words, but it is up to us to choose how we are to use them. Basically we can use a word but the definition can be adjusted according to how it is used in the particular sentence it is being used in.
this is my humble opinion.
i agree with chris. Many words can have different meanings and different interpretations, but dictionaries do settle on what is most common. the only thing that i think that could make Dictionaries more flexible would be more in- depth examples. "if used in this way blah blah blah", "if the stress is on this syllable it means blah blah blah", "if it is said in this tone blaaaaaaaaaahhhhh". all in all, dictionaries can only do so much
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