Question

Carefully Read the Case study and answer both questions in 250 words each.

Shades of meaning

If you have tried the activities in the previous parts, you are likely to be appreciating afresh just how much is going on around our words as we use them to communicate.

As poet T.S. Eliot says, “Words... slip, slide, perish, Decay with imprecision, will not stay in place, Will not stay still.” Surely, our words have made it possible for us to construct our knowledge. But what meanings do they attempt to fix in place, and what meanings are they given by the millions of others who might read and interpret them? Our languages are, beyond doubt, an amazing way of knowing in enabling us to share knowledge. But how do we manage such sharing with words that ‘decay with imprecision’?

We do make various attempts to pin down and hold in place the core meanings of our words, prime among them being the move we take to define our terms. If we want to make sure that we are all talking about the same thing when we exchange ideas, we check our basic understanding. Many a discussion has reached a frustrating conclusion because the speakers never did figure out that they were entering with different understandings of a core concept, a central word. Witness social debates on ‘poverty’ and ‘development’ – let alone ‘the economy’ or ‘freedom’ or ‘war’. When a simple word such as ‘rock’ can slide around as we operate with it, what slippery territory we enter when we want to talk about the larger concepts that shape our understanding of the world!

When we define our terms, we are trying to use the symbols of our language to make another specific symbol precise. Definitions are statements within the system of symbols, rather like moves in a large language game, with each piece depending upon the others. We call the core definitional meaning the ‘denotation’ of the word, or in cases of multiple core meanings (‘rock’ is a noun or a verb, with unlike meanings), the ‘denotations’.

We call the overtones of meaning, the nuances that arise as we use the word in particular contexts, its ‘connotations’. It is the connotations of a word that give it its ‘flavour’ or its ‘halo’ of meaning.

How we deal with the ambiguity of language – its imprecision in meaning and its connotations – depends on what the nature of our communication is and the kind of knowledge we are exchanging.

In some fields, precision is crucial. The sciences take care to define terms tightly in order to use exactly the right word, or leave language behind and instead opt in favour of using numbers or other sets of symbols. In other fields, finding exactly the right word may depend on deliberately using the ambiguity. Diplomacy and negotiation, for example, sometimes depend on indirection and subtle suggestion, and literature often depends for its expressive power on language whose connotations stir subjective associations of meaning. In yet other areas of our lives, we may not even care much about what the words we are using actually mean, since the communication of friendly chat is carried largely by the tone and accompanying body movement, and simply by the fact that we are making mouth noise companionably together. Altogether, the kind of knowledge we want to communicate affects our expectations of language and the ways we use it.

The Dictionary

1 What is the role of a dictionary? Is it descriptive, recording the changes in language as they happen? Or is it prescriptive, legislating what changes in language are acceptable?

2 In language, new words and usages are generated almost constantly, in response to changing need and creative impulse. Why do you think that some languages (French, Spanish, Icelandic) have official institutes which regulate what new ones are accepted? What are the arguments for and against preserving a language in a particular form?

Answer 1

1. The role of a dictionary is to provide the precise meaning of a word, their form, usage, translation, etymology etc. It is descriptive as it only records the language and its changes and does not legislate any changes that happen. The dictionary provides information about the words which can be used by a person to improve their communication skills.

2. New words and new phrases are constantly being created generated in the world. Some of them are local to the area or specific region, others are used only for online talk while some are used nationally. The reason why some languages have official institute to regulate is that some new words and terms can have two meaning or can be used in different contexts. The institutes regulate the use of these words so that they can be used officially which requires precise definition. When used in courts, these definitions must be understood correctly. Hence, these regulations are important. These regulations give a structure and format to the language so people can communicate accurately without ambiguity.

Preserving a language in the particular form helps to keep the purity of the language and prevents it from getting corrupted by new words or words taken from other languages. An unregulated language has the risk of getting into obscurity.

Preserving a language in particular form stops it from evolving naturally. Languages have changed over the years and it is difficult to stop this process. People keep adding new words to vocabulary and as the world is globalized, new terms will be introduced. Regulating the language will make it difficult for people to communicate as new users of language may not be aware of its structure or format.