> I think words are concepts. My notion of this is that words are pointers to something in a concept space. The words themselves don't and can't contain everyt

> I think words are concepts. My notion of this is that words are pointers to something in a concept space. The words themselves don't and can't contain everything that the concept is; through cultural immersion, you gain a more complete notion of the concept and can more reliably refer to it by using an appropriate word. This is why a lot of words are used to mean things completely unrelated (apparently) to their definition. The address they have in concept space simply changed. And then there's the detail that concepts easily and frequently overlap. I'm sure this has been covered by an Actual Linguist more credibly, though I've never seen it.