Who owns words?

[the]

Many of the words in our society have significant meaning. There are those who feel they are entitled to be the guardians of the meaning of those words. By what right or basis are they entitled to defend that meaning? Who should ultimately determine the meaning of words? Should the meaning of words be allowed to change over time or should society do its best to retain their meaning? What justification is there to changing the meaning of a word?

Do you mean how black people "own" a certain racial slur? Or how Donald Trump "owns" the phrase "You're fired."?

 

[TheLastMohican]

I think it's ok for people to use their own dialect if they wish to do so. If either they or a listener wishes to make clarification, that's an opportunity for light conversation.

I think we should be forgiving when people unwittingly insult, but once it has been made clear that a certain term has an offensive meaning in a culture, the non-native speaker should make some effort to conform. To do otherwise would be deliberate incitement.

 

[Shai Gar]

Thankfully the internet is International.

 

[TheLastMohican]

Thankfully the internet is International.

True, and it also involves no immediate physical threat.

 

[Satya]

Do you mean how black people "own" a certain racial slur? Or how Donald Trump "owns" the phrase "You're fired."?

It's a philosophical question. Can you really own a word? How do you legitimately enforce ownership?

 

[88chaz88]

Schadenfreude. What's the english equivalent?

Schadenfreude.

It's an English word as well as a German one. Same with zeitgeist and a few others.

 

[Questingpoet]

This is quite the interesting thread. There are a lot of real interesting thoughts and ideas here. Here are some of mine. Language (English is what I speak of) is becoming both more and less complicated. It becomes more so, as was said earlier, as we continually add words and new meanings. It becomes less so in how we shape the words we already have. Look at a few Middle English words and what they have evolved into. They are shorter, less complicated to spell, and much more phonetic.

Here are some word meanings that have changed over time.


Word ______ Original Meaning


Awful________ Deserving of awe

Bead _________Prayer

Brave_________ Cowardice (as in bravado)

Girl__________ Young person of either sex


Here are some words that were formerly hyphenated and have lost the hyphen.


fig leaf

hobby horse

ice cream

pin money

pot belly

test tube


Here are some words that were hyphenated and have become merged after loosing the hyphen.


bumblebee

chickpea

crybaby

leapfrog

logjam


We evolve our words into whatever is perceived as simpler I think. Once people decide it's a better form and start using it, the change occurs. The next big real question is how long before text-speak becomes the normal. I, for one, will not be LMAO when this happens!

 

[the]

I dont care who owns a word as long as I can effectively communicate to who I want to.

 

[arbygil]

ORLY?

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/twitter

I meant conceptually, d'oh!

No, I knew the word itself existed, but the concept of twitter/Twitter is far different now than it's original meaning. That's what I was trying to explain.

If you ask a 7th grader today what "Twitter" means, they'll probably give you an entirely different meaning for the word than, say, a non-computer user over the age of 50.

 

[acd]

I wonder if the culture changes because the language changes? If certain words start to mean other than what they used to mean, that has to affect how you percieve certain ideas, and thus, what kind of actions you're willing to take on the basis of those ideas.

Words change when cultures change, as they're used to build cultures...at least according to Semiotics (see Roland Barthes).. He's not exactly referring to words per se.. but objects that are turned into symbols to communicate something.. which I think is still relevant, as words are abstract symbols.

It always starts with people changing the meaning or contexts of words in their language.. Words don't change on their own.. How could that be? People may change the meaning and this may have an effect.

 

[enfp can be shy]

The word shamans, known as academic philologists, who get this mysterious power from their predecessors.

By now significant portions of the languages we use have been consciously altered with political and economic purposes. Originally words just developed out of chaotic audio-visual associations, eg:

(chinese oracle bone script)

 

[DefectiveCreative]

I meant conceptually, d'oh!

No, I knew the word itself existed, but the concept of twitter/Twitter is far different now than it's original meaning. That's what I was trying to explain.

If you ask a 7th grader today what "Twitter" means, they'll probably give you an entirely different meaning for the word than, say, a non-computer user over the age of 50.

Icy.

 

[deadred]

We can choose and use any words we want, but I don't think we really "own" them until we understand their definitions and use them appropriately and in proper context. That way they become part of our true vocabulary.