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What Are Words For?
How is it that these days so many people seem confused about the purpose of language?
What are words for? You’d think it would be a simple question.
Words are the units we use to convey mental constructs. When I say or write cat the recipient of my output can visualize a generic animal of the Felidae family. When I say or write the cat licked its paw the recipient of my output can imagine that generic domestic feline performing the stated action.
The image formed in the other person’s head may not be exactly what I had in my own mind when I created the sentence but it’s close enough for everyday purposes.
When we need to be more precise, we use more precise vocabulary. That’s one of the reasons why craft guilds of various kinds create their own specialized vocabulary, usually by repurposing more general words. Thus doctors talk about patients “presenting” with symptoms and engineers use the word “vacuum” to mean any environment in which there is an atmospheric pressure differential. Doctors also acquire a much larger vocabulary with regards to parts of the body than the typical person, and engineers likewise have recourse to a greater lexicon of relevant words.
Even in everyday life, a larger vocabulary is generally more helpful than a restricted one. Imagine if we had a single word for color. It would be…
