Comment by lutusp | Hacker News Reader

Comment by lutusp | Hacker News Reader

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> I have no idea what you think the definition of a word is, besides what people think it means.

Really? There are any number of words whose proper meanings and contradicted by what people think they mean. Examples abound, here's just one:

Literally:

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

1 : in a literal sense or manner : actually <took the remark literally> <was literally insane>

2 : in effect : virtually <will literally turn the world upside down to combat cruelty or injustice — Norman Cousins>

This is what people think "literally" means. But it is not what "literally" actually means. The common perception is false.

> Is there some official "This Is What Words Mean" tome somewhere that all true definitions flow from?

1. Only for certain terms. There are plenty of examples.

2. On the topic of words, you need to learn the meaning of deconstructive postmodernism, the fascinating idea that there are no shared ideas, that everything is a matter of opinion.

> Was there some secret international treaty wherein all word definitions were all agreed upon?

Classic straw man.

> This is what people think "literally" means. But it is not what "literally" actually means. The common perception is false.

Whence did the "correct" definition of "literally" arise, and how does this origin differ from that of the "incorrect" definition?

You missed my point, which is that, no matter which definition one chooses, a word cannot simultaneously mean what people think it means, and the opposite of what people think it means, at the same time. Even given the fluid nature of word definitions, that's not rational. That's why I choose this example over and over again, not because of what "literally" means, but because it cannot possibly mean A and not-A at the same time.

And some words have technical meanings that are contradicted by popular usage, like "theory" in science. Many people think "theory" means "hunch" -- "but it's just a theory, you know?" In science, theory has a specific meaning contradicted by the everyday understanding.

In the present case, file synchronization has a specific meaning that many people don't know. This misunderstanding causes them to lose their music collections.

> it cannot possibly mean A and not-A at the same time.

Here's an old joke:

    A linguistics professor was lecturing to his English class one day. 'In English,' 
    he said, 'A double negative forms a positive. In some languages, though, such as
    Russian, a double negative is still a negative. However, there is no language
    wherein a double positive can form a negative.'

    A voice from the back of the room piped up, 'Yeah, right.'

> no matter which definition one chooses, a word cannot simultaneously mean what people think it means, and the opposite of what people think it means, at the same time.

A word can have multiple meanings, and those meanings can be related, or unrelated, or contradictory, or anything in between. When a person uses a word, usually they intend one of those meanings, but you can also intend multiple meanings at the same time—thus double entendres. You can also say something, but mean something different, or even the opposite—thus irony and sarcasm.

> And some words have technical meanings that are contradicted by popular usage, like "theory" in science. Many people think "theory" means "hunch" -- "but it's just a theory, you know?" In science, theory has a specific meaning contradicted by the everyday understanding.

"Theory" has multiple meanings, some of which people are unfamiliar with. But their understanding isn't wrong, they just don't know the meaning that the speaker intends.

> synchronization has a specific meaning that many people don't know.

Synchronization has multiple meanings—thus why we have post after post arguing about which is correct.

> This misunderstanding causes them to lose their music collections.

This, I agree with you about.

Of course they can. Words have contradictory definitions.

There's even a name for them: contronyms.

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