Off My Chest
RULES:
I am looking for mods!
1. The "good" part of our community means we are pro-empathy and anti-harassment. However, we don't intend to make this a "safe space" where everyone has to be a saint. Sh*t happens, and life is messy. That's why we get things off our chests.
2. Bigotry is not allowed. That includes racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, and religiophobia. (If you want to vent about religion, that's fine; but religion is not inherently evil.)
3. Frustrated, venting, or angry posts are still welcome.
4. Posts and comments that bait, threaten, or incite harassment are not allowed.
5. If anyone offers mental, medical, or professional advice here, please remember to take it with a grain of salt. Seek out real professionals if needed.
6. Please put NSFW behind NSFW tags.
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You can of course attempt to define it any way you want. But if society, through your interactions in aggregate rejects it, then it doesn't change language.
I get you're doing the whole, when language is relative if loses all meaning, but honestly, do you not get the point that language is a social phenomena? Does this make you feel good?
No I do not mind that language is relative, that it evolves, etc. I don't even mind when words used in different patterns of phrasing can mean the opposite. I mind when the exact same phrase can mean two diametrically opposed things because asinine common use had misunderstood the original intent of the word so badly that we all are stuck dealing with it. If the exact same phrase can mean two completely opposite things, then it means neither. It requires the rest of the context around it to define it, meaning it is a functionally useless statement.
If "in" means in and out, it means neither. If "some" means some and none, it means neither. If "anxious" means anxious and eager, it means neither. A perfectly useful word was turned into a meaningless one. It's bad semantics.
If context resolves the meaning, then I don't see how it's functionally useless. In one context, anxious means "worry" and in another context it means "eager". It continues to be useful because of context.
I'm really having trouble seeing the issue you're having given the light of how context resolves it. It functions within context. A word with multiple meanings resolves with context. "A bat flew by me" doesn't mean it's meaningless. It requires further context.
I don't know why you're applying normative standards to semantics. Linguistics is not a normative field. It's descriptive. This is the heart of the issue. Semantics are not definitions.