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There is no question that words have meaning. The right words well constructed can be persuasive and convey ideas which transcend the words themselves.

Even so, words are subject to interpretation. The one who speaks the words may not have quite the same idea as the one who hears the words. Interpretation of words is subjective. That’s particularly true with words which mean different things in different situations.

Take the word love for example.

When someone says: I love ice-cream, it has a different meaning than when a lover says to the person of his love: I love you. Or when a teenager says: I love Disney Land
Or when a person says: I love golf.

When we hear or read the communication of a person, it’s always important to keep in mind the context in which the person is using the terms. Is the intent to offer genuine communication? Is the intent to obfuscate real view while saying something quite different? Is the intent to stimulate thinking? Is the intent to challenge another’s perceptions?

All these are done with words. In live contact, we have tone of voice, facial expression, and body language added to the words in the exchange.

What people intend is often not limited to what they say. What people mean is often concealed in the structure. And, of course, people lie.

And so, to correlate words and meaning, we have to keep in mind a number of things. What is the situation, the venue? What is the level of sincerity? What are the objectives? Are objectives hidden as in advertising? Are they straight forward as a parent might speak to a child?

Then there is the matter of hearing what we want to hear. Interpretation transcends the words, and people reconstruct a thought or a position as they wish to hear it.

People sometimes paraphrase another’s words distorting what what was actually said in a disingenuous attempt to discredit what in fact [b]was[/b said.

All those and more are important to keep in mind when giving consideration to words and meaning.

JAK

JAK wrote:There is no question that words have meaning. The right words well constructed can be persuasive and convey ideas which transcend the words themselves.

Even so, words are subject to interpretation. The one who speaks the words may not have quite the same idea as the one who hears the words. Interpretation of words is subjective. That’s particularly true with words which mean different things in different situations.

Take the word love for example.

When someone says: I love ice-cream, it has a different meaning than when a lover says to the person of his love: I love you. Or when a teenager says: I love Disney Land
Or when a person says: I love golf.

When we hear or read the communication of a person, it’s always important to keep in mind the context in which the person is using the terms. Is the intent to offer genuine communication? Is the intent to obfuscate real view while saying something quite different? Is the intent to stimulate thinking? Is the intent to challenge another’s perceptions?

All these are done with words. In live contact, we have tone of voice, facial expression, and body language added to the words in the exchange.

What people intend is often not limited to what they say. What people mean is often concealed in the structure. And, of course, people lie.

And so, to correlate words and meaning, we have to keep in mind a number of things. What is the situation, the venue? What is the level of sincerity? What are the objectives? Are objectives hidden as in advertising? Are they straight forward as a parent might speak to a child?

Then there is the matter of hearing what we want to hear. Interpretation transcends the words, and people reconstruct a thought or a position as they wish to hear it.

People sometimes paraphrase another’s words distorting what what was actually said in a disingenuous attempt to discredit what in fact [b]was[/b said.

All those and more are important to keep in mind when giving consideration to words and meaning.

JAK

So what do you think Pres Hinckley was saying, when he said a wife is a possession?

JAK,

Thank you for this post. With regards to your statements about the importance of context, I think that cultural context is also of great importance especially on boards like this. I remember well, my first attempts at dialogue with LDS and that I didn't understand the terminology of the religious culture, if you will, of Mormonism. For example, a "teacher" in the LDS church is something different that how I define teacher. Learning the correct terminology and meanings, helped to eliminate my confusion.

I think that another consideration should be that of how we use words in a specific professional context. If I were to attempt to dialogue with someone outside of my profession (even on a board such as this) I would have to clearly define just what I mean when I speak of "transitions", "language mapping" or "scaffolding".

We shouldn't assume that the person reading our posts understands what we're saying any more than we should assume that our posts clearly convey what we're thinking when we post them.

But I think you said that!

Jersey Girl

Other words that take on different meaning in an LDS context include "elder" and "stake".