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Given that you're clearly aware that different people have vastly different definitions of "sandwich," how could you justify being angry at all if all you order
by baddox 8y ago
Given that you're clearly aware that different people have vastly different definitions of "sandwich," how could you justify being angry at all if all you ordered was any unspecified sandwich?
- andrewla 8y agoYes, different definitions, but most people in usage don’t start from a definition and proceed to usage; they start from usage. In this case, I am explicitly rejecting the notion that there is a definition that matches usage (both mine and others). My experience, anecdotally, is that given the rule of thumb above and similar thought experiments, there is not a lot of variation in the practical usage of the word sandwich. Opposition mainly comes from people who attempt to apply an arbitrary rule and are not willing to revise that rule to match their own usage for the sake of the argument. In other words, overthinking. Or a pathological case of Occam’s razor.