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If a word can have as many meanings as we assign to it. Can was assign every meaning to one word?

⁨90⁩ ⁨likes⁩

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨Clinicallydepressedpoochie@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨[deleted]⁩

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  • ricecake@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Smurf yeah we can.

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    • mipadaitu@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Smurfing hell… I thought I was going to be the smartass in this thread.

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  • yukichigai@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Marklar

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    • Asafum@feddit.nl ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Image

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      • bcgm3@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Image

        Some of these GIF hosts can be pretty obtuse. I was able to get at this GIF by going to the embed page and clicking/tapping the “copy link” button. In this case, the only difference in the two URLs was the file extension.

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    • TopRamenBinLaden@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Marklar yea, marklar.

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  • essell@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Aladeen

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    • Slovene@feddit.nl ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      ☹️😐🙂😐☹️😐🙂

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  • over_clox@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo

    en.wikipedia.org/…/Buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffal…

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  • NegativeLookBehind@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    The the the the the, the the the the the the the the; the the the the the the.

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    • Clinicallydepressedpoochie@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck

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      • kinttach@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

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      • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        I saw a mechanic throw down a wrench and shout “the fuck-fucking fucker’s fucking fucked AGAIN” and we all knew the deadline needed a push.

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      • StrawberryPigtails@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        You’ve certainly shown the diversity of the word.

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      • Omgpwnies@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        mother-motherfuck

        mother-motherfuck-fuck

        motherfuck, motherfuck,

        Noinch noinch noinch.

        www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCNH-0CBfr8

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  • Soapbox1858@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I am groot.

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    • slingstone@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I am Groot.

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  • circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Professional academic linguist here. (Yes, that’s a thing.)

    Words have the meanings that communities apply to them. There is no governing body over word meanings. There can be a tension (e.g. two groups using the same term in different ways), but that doesn’t really mean that the word means both. Words mean different things to different groups. It has to be this way, for epistemic and pragmatic reasons.

    In that sense, meanings are not consciously assigned. So the answer to your original question could be “no”.

    But in another sense, all meanings are possible for any given meaningful sequence around the world. Which means, in principle, given infinite communities of practice, a word could have infinite meanings. A stretch, of course.

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    • milicent_bystandr@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Or, to put it another way, (unprofessional academic linguist here), a word has meanings by what you mean by it, and what the listener understands it to mean.

      In a sense, it can mean anything you want it to. In another sense, it can mean anything the listener/reader interprets it as. Most useful though is when you mean the same meaning that the listener understands.

      And for “accepted/official meaning”, that’s just a community all agreeing on a meaning. Optionally with a recognised group (e.g. dictionary writer) affirming certain meanings as accepted in the community.

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      • circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        I think you’re getting at intended meaning versus received meaning. Which is totally a thing, but intended meaning is far less well understood than accepted meaning (not necessarily at the word level, but definitely at the sentence level).

        At the sentence level, companies pay big money to have tens of thousands of sentences manually annotated for intended meaning (to try and train AI to be able to discern it automatically).

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    • GrammarPolice@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Professional academic linguist

      🧐

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      • circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        It means I’m not a translator and I don’t work on one particular language.

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  • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Gary, Gary… Gary?

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  • lousyd@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Alas, yes.

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  • trapezohedron@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    “Dude”

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    • 667@lemmy.radio ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Sweeeet

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  • SomeAmateur@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    skibidi

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  • Skydancer@pawb.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    You seem yo be looking for the word fuck.

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  • ICastFist@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Theoretically, yes. In practice, no. Suppose bla becomes a everything word. If anyone asks what bla means, you say it means bla. The other person won’t understand, you persist on bla bla bla meaning bla means bla, by which bla can mean anything and you realize that it just doesn’t work, because if it “means anything”, in reality it means nothing.

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  • urda@lebowski.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    You sure as squantch can!

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    • Brodysseus@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Came here looking for this

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    • GroundedGator@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      My squantch in squantch you can’t squantch that in public.

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  • dan1101@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    ACK! ACK ACK ACK ACK. ACK ACK.

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    • HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      He comes in peace!

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  • RunOnSmoothFrozenIce@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Ook.

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  • M137@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Than*

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  • yesman@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    The simple answer to your question is no. Language is as much about distinction and exclusion as it is about description. The word “circle” stands for the description and properties of the circle, but would be incoherent if it did not also exclude straight lines.

    You can often find examples where some things are considered premium or desirable not for the properties is has, but for what it lacks. Just think of all the products marketed to not have something like BPA, fat, sugar, Carbs, gluten, asbestos, lead, and even cruelty.

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  • Contramuffin@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Let me introduce you to Goptjaam, probably the closest “language” that fits what you mean: youtu.be/ze5i_e_ryTk

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  • Gremour@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    There’s a sci-fi movie from USSR, “Kin-dza-dza”. The natives of another planet in another galaxy were telepathes, but used language consisting of only a few words. “Koo” was for almost any word, “kiu” for swearing, “ketse” for marches (most valuable asset) and a few more. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kin-dza-dza!

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  • lvxferre@mander.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    In theory, yes. In practice, no.

    To assign a meaning to a word is a social matter. You’d need to have more than just one person accepting that that word conveys that meaning.

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  • RobotToaster@mander.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    fnord

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  • Kolanaki@yiffit.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    That’s what the word “aught” means. Literally “anything at all.”

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    • skulblaka@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      That’s “jawn” in Philly. It can stand in for literally any object. “These jawns are expensive” “Make a left at the jawn” “Jawn said he ain’t coming” “This jawn is packed”

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      • janus2@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        every time I see a transplant refer to an animate object as jawn they get mocked raucously by the phillyborn

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      • Kingofthezyx@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Or “da kine” in Hawaiian pidgin.

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    • xmunk@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I aught aught that aught I?

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  • dnick@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Yes

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  • Sanctus@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I thought we did this with buffalo

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  • bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Hoogla!

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  • spittingimage@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Chicken.

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  • Siegfried@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Yes yes, yes yes yes. Yes, yes yes yes yes, yes yes yes!

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  • sailormoon@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    zjierb

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  • dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Yeah here and AskLemmy get so many replies I’ve sadly had to abandon a few posts due to the sheer number of replies. I really like to reply to everybody that takes the time to comment but in swear I’ve had posts with 400+ comments and I feel overwhelmed.

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    • Clinicallydepressedpoochie@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Im just glad I really didn’t need an answer for this one and have just been enjoying reading the replies.

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