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Things I Don't Understand


    Some uses for Classifications, Definitions, Refining definitions, and Re-purposing words.

On the one hand:

  1. Why do we drive on a parkway, and park on a driveway?
  2. Shouldn't hot water heaters be called cold water heaters? If the water is already hot, why heat it?
  3. Shouldn't there be another word that sounds like the word homonym but means something different or is spelled differently?
  4. See #3. Homonym apparently isn't precise enough to distinguish all possible cases. Therefore, we refine the concept with homophones, homographs, heteronyms, heterophones, heterographs, capitonyms. . . I'm not making these word up*. Even though I have difficulty remembering the distinctions among these more precise categories , I understand that for linguists, the ability to distinguish among various types of homonyms could be useful.
  5. For example, a capitonym changes its meaning or pronunciation when capitalized. For example furniture polish is not pronounced like Polish, the language. The bird turkey becomes the country Turkey when capitalized. Use a capitonym cautiously at the beginning of a sentence. Curiously, the word capitonym does not change its meaning or pronunciation when Capitalized.
  6. Also as an example, consider heteronyms AKA heterophones. Note: Synonyms have the same meaning but different spellings. Heteronyms have the same spelling but different meanings and pronunciations. For example wind in "I tried to wind the balloon string around my finger, but the wind was to strong."
  7. Heterographs have the same pronunciation, but different meanings and spellings. For example "to", "too", and "two".
(IIRC, the #1 was pointed out to me by Gallagher, #2 by George Carlin.)
Most folks don't have need for the above terminology, but the more precise refinements to categories of homonyms are useful to linguists.*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homonym


On the other hand:


  • Agreeing on the definition of a word in context is essential to agreeing on a fact. Good definitions short circuit many semantic disputes. Axiomatic systems based on logic and precise definitions were designed by the Greek philosophers to aid in the pursuit of truth,

On the third hand:

  • Unlike philosophers, Politicians use pseudo-logic, prejudicial terminology and and misleading rhetoric in the pursuit of power. For example, in today's news, the Republicans plan to eliminate the word transgender by creating a strict binary definition of gender despite clear biological observations to the contrary. This is somewhat similar to the old political effort to re-define pi as a rational number or even repeal the law of gravity. However, the attempt to redefine will give their usual bathroom plank new life near mid-term elections when they need distractions from their plans for important issues.

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