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Cool! This sounds similar to koans: "a paradoxical anecdote or riddle, used in Zen Buddhism to demonstrate the inadequacy of logical reasoning and to provoke en

Cool! This sounds similar to koans: "a paradoxical anecdote or riddle, used in Zen Buddhism to demonstrate the inadequacy of logical reasoning and to provoke enlightenment." If you explore the meaning of language enough you'll realize it doesn't really make sense. Everything is based on context and assumptions that we take for granted when communicating. But if you dig deep enough (and it's really not that deep anyway), you'll notice that pretty much anything you say or write can be interpreted in multiple different ways, which means there's no one absolute meaning to any expression of language. Meaning comes from interpretation, which is subjective and unique to the person doing it. Interesting exercise: for a day or a week, make an effort to think how anything that someone else says to you is actually true - asume they are always right and think about how to justify it. It's really amazing, at first it's really hard, but then you discover you can always just interpret what they say in a way that fits your views.

soulofmischief 7y ago
I think you can make unambiguous sentences: "I walked one mile today." Unless context specifically indicates the very rare possibility that walked is personal shorthand for another activity, it's a pretty unambiguous statement.
- p1necone 7y ago
  I can think of two different ways to interpret that sentence. 1: They went for a walk as a single activity on top of their regular daily walking, and that walk was a mile long. 2. They walked a total of 1 mile throughout the entire day, including regular walking around the house/office etc. I do agree with the sentiment though, there definitely are plenty of unambiguous sentences you can say in everyday conversation. Perhaps "my refrigerator is currently powered on" is an arbitrary example that works.
  - soulofmischief 7y ago
    That's pretty good. But then knowing that ambiguity, I could craft a statement like, "I walked a mile on the treadmill today."
    - ta1234567890 7y ago
      Exactly, and if you keep going, you'd notice you need each time a longer, more precise description, which at the same time, paradoxically, opens the door for more ambiguity. In that example, the first context is English language, then knowing who I is, then what a mile is, and a treadmill and today. All of those are contextual. Even mile. How long is a mile? Like any physical measure, it actually varies, because it is defined relative to something else which varies. The meaning of English language has also varied over time, that sentence might not make any sense to someone reading it in 20 years. And then when is today? May 7, 2019 - which is also a relative measure of time and not even that precise. And then finally, what if you were lying? Did you really walk a mile today? How can I be sure? And how can you be sure I understand the same meaning from the words you say or write?
      - soulofmischief 7y ago
        I understand where you are coming from, but a lot of what you just presented isn't actually relevant to the topic of ambiguity from lack of context in language. Some of it just doesn't apply. Allow me to explain... > the first context is English language Let's ignore this context. If you don't understand English then you shouldn't be expected to understand an English statement regardless of context. > How long is a mile? That depends on what time and space you are in. But that's ok. All such measurements are relative and defined by non-natural constructs. But we can be realistic and assume a mile is whatever our government has decided. When I tell you "I ran a mile", I'm not telling someone in Australia I ran a mile. I"m telling you that. If we are speaking over the internet it might complicate things, but we only have to resolve the meaning of mile once for our relationship, and all proceeding discussions will use this meaning. I would argue that this makes the word mile unambiguous in the sense that you are saying. If we had to assert each time what I meant by a mile, then that would be ambiguous. > that sentence might not make any sense to someone reading it in 20 years Evolution of language is a separate phenomenon. We don't need to consider that. Only what the language means today right now as I use it. That's the utility of language. For older English texts, we have literature which matches our common vernacular to the vernacular of the time. Foreign translations are out of scope for the same reason listed above. Since we have mappings between today's English and yesterday's English, I would again argue that this is not a source of ambiguity. > And then when is today? May 7, 2019 That doesn't have anything to do with language. That is a chronospacial coordinate. It represents a certain degree of completion of our orbit around the sun. It isn't a measurement of time at all. It's only relative in the sense that all time and space measurements are relative to the spacetime coordinate of the Big Bang. Time is inherently a relative concept. We don't have time unless we are comparing (relating) two different frames. We define one in terms relative to the other (motion, state, etc). In a single, non-relative frame of reference time just doesn't exist. > And then finally, what if you were lying? Again, this has nothing to do with language. You aren't trying to guess what I'm thinking, you're trying to understand what I'm saying. That's what language parsing is about. Discussion of motivations, misdirection, etc. is irrelevant.
  - Rhinobird 7y ago
    What if you walked an indeterminate length for an Airline mile?
- chacham15 7y ago
  Even statements like this can become ambiguous depending on the speaker. E.g. is the speaker speaking literally or metaphorically? Maybe the speaker feels like they walked a lot and so they chose a distance which represented a lot to them. Also, is one mile a lot or a little? Maybe its the opposite and they feel like they barely walked. Science makes every attempt to be unambiguous, people do not.

soulofmischief 7y ago

I think you can make unambiguous sentences: "I walked one mile today." Unless context specifically indicates the very rare possibility that walked is personal shorthand for another activity, it's a pretty unambiguous statement.

p1necone 7y ago
I can think of two different ways to interpret that sentence. 1: They went for a walk as a single activity on top of their regular daily walking, and that walk was a mile long. 2. They walked a total of 1 mile throughout the entire day, including regular walking around the house/office etc. I do agree with the sentiment though, there definitely are plenty of unambiguous sentences you can say in everyday conversation. Perhaps "my refrigerator is currently powered on" is an arbitrary example that works.
- soulofmischief 7y ago
  That's pretty good. But then knowing that ambiguity, I could craft a statement like, "I walked a mile on the treadmill today."
  - ta1234567890 7y ago
    Exactly, and if you keep going, you'd notice you need each time a longer, more precise description, which at the same time, paradoxically, opens the door for more ambiguity. In that example, the first context is English language, then knowing who I is, then what a mile is, and a treadmill and today. All of those are contextual. Even mile. How long is a mile? Like any physical measure, it actually varies, because it is defined relative to something else which varies. The meaning of English language has also varied over time, that sentence might not make any sense to someone reading it in 20 years. And then when is today? May 7, 2019 - which is also a relative measure of time and not even that precise. And then finally, what if you were lying? Did you really walk a mile today? How can I be sure? And how can you be sure I understand the same meaning from the words you say or write?
    - soulofmischief 7y ago
      I understand where you are coming from, but a lot of what you just presented isn't actually relevant to the topic of ambiguity from lack of context in language. Some of it just doesn't apply. Allow me to explain... > the first context is English language Let's ignore this context. If you don't understand English then you shouldn't be expected to understand an English statement regardless of context. > How long is a mile? That depends on what time and space you are in. But that's ok. All such measurements are relative and defined by non-natural constructs. But we can be realistic and assume a mile is whatever our government has decided. When I tell you "I ran a mile", I'm not telling someone in Australia I ran a mile. I"m telling you that. If we are speaking over the internet it might complicate things, but we only have to resolve the meaning of mile once for our relationship, and all proceeding discussions will use this meaning. I would argue that this makes the word mile unambiguous in the sense that you are saying. If we had to assert each time what I meant by a mile, then that would be ambiguous. > that sentence might not make any sense to someone reading it in 20 years Evolution of language is a separate phenomenon. We don't need to consider that. Only what the language means today right now as I use it. That's the utility of language. For older English texts, we have literature which matches our common vernacular to the vernacular of the time. Foreign translations are out of scope for the same reason listed above. Since we have mappings between today's English and yesterday's English, I would again argue that this is not a source of ambiguity. > And then when is today? May 7, 2019 That doesn't have anything to do with language. That is a chronospacial coordinate. It represents a certain degree of completion of our orbit around the sun. It isn't a measurement of time at all. It's only relative in the sense that all time and space measurements are relative to the spacetime coordinate of the Big Bang. Time is inherently a relative concept. We don't have time unless we are comparing (relating) two different frames. We define one in terms relative to the other (motion, state, etc). In a single, non-relative frame of reference time just doesn't exist. > And then finally, what if you were lying? Again, this has nothing to do with language. You aren't trying to guess what I'm thinking, you're trying to understand what I'm saying. That's what language parsing is about. Discussion of motivations, misdirection, etc. is irrelevant.
- Rhinobird 7y ago
  What if you walked an indeterminate length for an Airline mile?
chacham15 7y ago
Even statements like this can become ambiguous depending on the speaker. E.g. is the speaker speaking literally or metaphorically? Maybe the speaker feels like they walked a lot and so they chose a distance which represented a lot to them. Also, is one mile a lot or a little? Maybe its the opposite and they feel like they barely walked. Science makes every attempt to be unambiguous, people do not.