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How often does that really lead to confusion though? I can't think of a time someone said "blue" meaning sad and I thought they meant "blue" the color. Humans

How often does that really lead to confusion though? I can't think of a time someone said "blue" meaning sad and I thought they meant "blue" the color. Humans are great at disambiguating things.

mchaver 11y ago
If context is missing (paper is torn, parts of conversation are missed) then "overloaded words" can easily be misinterpreted. People have various techniques for correcting these communication errors: make an assumption based on one's own knowledge of speaker, make an assumption based on one's own knowledge of the topic or beliefs or reconfirm the meaning with the speaker. I am sure there are a lot more. For non-native speakers overloaded words can be challenging to deal with. Overloaded words and close sounding words are also a common source of language games and art. All human languages have ambiguity at some level.
yongjik 11y ago
If you are a native speaker, rarely. Otherwise, all the freaking times (for the first ten years or so). E.g., consider the difference between a "cool guy" and a "cool attitude". If you think about it, they describe almost totally opposite situations. Or consider "No, it's cool." After all, "it's hot" means the temperature is high.
- true_religion 11y ago
  > consider the difference between a "cool guy" and a "cool attitude" I always thought the ideas were conflated. That to be 'cool' originally meant to be unflappable in the face of adversity which was akin to having a cool attitude.
- duaneb 11y ago
  > "cool attitude" Do you actually use this much, though? I had to double take because I'm not familiar with the phrase and I'm a native speaker. Typically you might use cool to in this way to describer an action or gerund, or with a prepositional phrase, or as an adverb. Heck, if anything, I'd say a "cool attitude" is a calm attitude—as in, the person played it cool.
  - afandian 11y ago
    Maybe not that exact phrasing but "he gave me a cool look" can mean exact opposites. Depends entirely on dialect / register. The direct metaphorical version ("he gave me an unfriendly look") is reasonably common in English. The other reading of it isn't so much, but is perfectly understandable (probably incorrectly).
  - tehwalrus 11y ago
    How about an "icy glare"?
- kaoD 11y ago
  > If you are a native speaker, rarely. Otherwise, all the freaking times (for the first ten years or so). Not a native speaker. Not my experience at all. In fact, from my experience watching people learn English around me (and teaching some of them), reusing concepts like this actually helps them get the meaning because they can relate to words they know. Maybe it's because such metaphors are pervasive in my native language too? > E.g., consider the difference between a "cool guy" and a "cool attitude". If you think about it, they describe almost totally opposite situations. I don't see how they're opposite. Hot-headed people (see how the metaphor is still at play?) aren't considered cool at all. > Or consider "No, it's cool." After all, "it's hot" means the temperature is high. What do you mean? "It's cool" = "the situation isn't hot". You don't have to worry about being burnt (again, same metaphor) by the situation.
  - yongjik 11y ago
    Maybe your native language has metaphors similar to English, or maybe your friends are better at learning English than my friends. :P But my point is that many metaphors look "natural" only after you learn it: you have to memorize them, and you think it's natural only because you've been doing it all your life. E.g., "hot-headed" is a decidedly English metaphor. In Korean, "his head is getting hot" would mean he's getting annoyed/angry at the present situation, not that he has a propensity for getting annoyed in general (which is what English "hot-headed" means). Similarly, English "cool" doesn't just mean "the situation isn't hot."; it also implies a positive situation. In contrast, you can say "The show only received a lukewarm reception.", but you can't say "It's OK, he was lukewarm about the mishap." As another example, in Korean, you "turn blue" when you're shocked/aghast, not when you're gloomy. All this stuff is basically a minefield of subtle misunderstandings.
    - kaoD 11y ago
      Yeah but, once you memorize them, the metaphors are pervasive and follow common patterns. I think having a similarly-metaphorical language helps taking cues from context. I haven't seen it taking ten years or so to memorize them. Phrasal verbs on the other hand? A nightmare! I've been speaking English "fluently" for more than 15 years and I still struggle with them. There's definitely some overlap of metaphors in western languages though, and English culture influence over western media helps establishing those metaphors too (we don't use "blue" as "sad" in our language, but it's not hard for us to relate to it since it's in so many songs).

How often does that really lead to confusion though? I can't think of a time someone said "blue" meaning sad and I thought they meant "blue" the color. Humans are great at disambiguating things.

mchaver 11y ago

If context is missing (paper is torn, parts of conversation are missed) then "overloaded words" can easily be misinterpreted. People have various techniques for correcting these communication errors: make an assumption based on one's own knowledge of speaker, make an assumption based on one's own knowledge of the topic or beliefs or reconfirm the meaning with the speaker. I am sure there are a lot more. For non-native speakers overloaded words can be challenging to deal with. Overloaded words and close sounding words are also a common source of language games and art. All human languages have ambiguity at some level.

yongjik 11y ago

If you are a native speaker, rarely. Otherwise, all the freaking times (for the first ten years or so). E.g., consider the difference between a "cool guy" and a "cool attitude". If you think about it, they describe almost totally opposite situations. Or consider "No, it's cool." After all, "it's hot" means the temperature is high.

true_religion 11y ago
> consider the difference between a "cool guy" and a "cool attitude" I always thought the ideas were conflated. That to be 'cool' originally meant to be unflappable in the face of adversity which was akin to having a cool attitude.
duaneb 11y ago
> "cool attitude" Do you actually use this much, though? I had to double take because I'm not familiar with the phrase and I'm a native speaker. Typically you might use cool to in this way to describer an action or gerund, or with a prepositional phrase, or as an adverb. Heck, if anything, I'd say a "cool attitude" is a calm attitude—as in, the person played it cool.
- afandian 11y ago
  Maybe not that exact phrasing but "he gave me a cool look" can mean exact opposites. Depends entirely on dialect / register. The direct metaphorical version ("he gave me an unfriendly look") is reasonably common in English. The other reading of it isn't so much, but is perfectly understandable (probably incorrectly).
- tehwalrus 11y ago
  How about an "icy glare"?
kaoD 11y ago
> If you are a native speaker, rarely. Otherwise, all the freaking times (for the first ten years or so). Not a native speaker. Not my experience at all. In fact, from my experience watching people learn English around me (and teaching some of them), reusing concepts like this actually helps them get the meaning because they can relate to words they know. Maybe it's because such metaphors are pervasive in my native language too? > E.g., consider the difference between a "cool guy" and a "cool attitude". If you think about it, they describe almost totally opposite situations. I don't see how they're opposite. Hot-headed people (see how the metaphor is still at play?) aren't considered cool at all. > Or consider "No, it's cool." After all, "it's hot" means the temperature is high. What do you mean? "It's cool" = "the situation isn't hot". You don't have to worry about being burnt (again, same metaphor) by the situation.
- yongjik 11y ago
  Maybe your native language has metaphors similar to English, or maybe your friends are better at learning English than my friends. :P But my point is that many metaphors look "natural" only after you learn it: you have to memorize them, and you think it's natural only because you've been doing it all your life. E.g., "hot-headed" is a decidedly English metaphor. In Korean, "his head is getting hot" would mean he's getting annoyed/angry at the present situation, not that he has a propensity for getting annoyed in general (which is what English "hot-headed" means). Similarly, English "cool" doesn't just mean "the situation isn't hot."; it also implies a positive situation. In contrast, you can say "The show only received a lukewarm reception.", but you can't say "It's OK, he was lukewarm about the mishap." As another example, in Korean, you "turn blue" when you're shocked/aghast, not when you're gloomy. All this stuff is basically a minefield of subtle misunderstandings.
  - kaoD 11y ago
    Yeah but, once you memorize them, the metaphors are pervasive and follow common patterns. I think having a similarly-metaphorical language helps taking cues from context. I haven't seen it taking ten years or so to memorize them. Phrasal verbs on the other hand? A nightmare! I've been speaking English "fluently" for more than 15 years and I still struggle with them. There's definitely some overlap of metaphors in western languages though, and English culture influence over western media helps establishing those metaphors too (we don't use "blue" as "sad" in our language, but it's not hard for us to relate to it since it's in so many songs).