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It's not completely arbitrary. Language still has meaning, but there is room for interpretation. Think of it as a model of the world. To launch a rocket you ne
by erispoe 10y ago
It's not completely arbitrary. Language still has meaning, but there is room for interpretation.
Think of it as a model of the world. To launch a rocket you need a pretty good model of how physics works, but you don't need to simulate and describe every single quantum interaction. Or you wouldn't be able to do anything.
Laws are like models, they describe our norms in (more or less) broad terms, but there is still a degree of uncertainty in each and every real world case.
- nercht12 10y agoPlease explain to me what the word "know" means. We could debate about it for hours on end. Same with tons of other words. What exactly is "spicy"? Is there such a flavor as "savory"? How far is "close"? And your telling me it's not ambiguous? The fact is, while a defining feature might hold for a certain amount of time, a person's idea of "closeness" or "spicyness" or millions of other things will gradually change over time. Albeit alittle. Of course, I said all that to counter your rocket example, as it's not particularly answering the question about language. With regards to language: As I said to other guy, can modern Greeks read ancient Greek? No. Culture degrades language. Gradually, words will mean something else. Consider the word "cool". How many people these days actually associate it with temperature first? Or "ass". How many people think "donkey"? Those are simple examples. We could go back to older English, but I think my point has been demonstrated. Admittedly, I keep shortening my responses before posting, so sometimes I don't explain some logic that seems obvious to me. Apologies.