Yup. Words don’t just mean what I’m intending to say. They mean a random mix of all the things all of you have read and heard them mean, and all the things you want them to mean when you use them, and how and I actually do use them, which never 100% exactly what we were aiming for every time. This is why I try to be amenable to alternative phrasing and to mixing up my word choices from time to time, so that I don’t become more attached to a signifier than the thing signified.
I have always been a “words” guy, so I’ve been painfully aware of how some have multiple definitions (see “run” or “set”), or have accrued connotations over time for much of my life.
One of the best examples I ever got was in my 1st semester at UT Law. Our CrimLaw prof was a new hire, fresh off of a gig with a group of legal scholars who had the task of rewriting huge chunks of the Texas Penal Code.
As he was teaching class one day, a student for whom English was not her primary language asked about a particular law we were studying. By her reading, it didn’t make sense. When he asked her why, she explained her rationale.
He froze. He stood in front of the class, silently reading the statute over and over again, occasionally mouthing the words as he did so. After several minutes of this, he addressed us again.
“Your reading of the statute requires using some words in unusual ways…
but completely valid ones. All it would take is a single skilled and determined defense attorney to successfully argue for your interpretation and it could nullify this entire subsection of the penal code. When this class is over, I need to make some calls to my colleagues on the commission to revise this statute.”
He spent a LOT of time making urgent calls to other scholars that week.
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