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Karl,
Back in prehistorical times, when I was in seminary, our linguistics professor took it as a given that words have multiple meanings. Not just in English but in human language in general. To bring home the point our professor pointed to the word "dog." Look it up. There are 10 definitions found in the Miriam Webster Dictionary. And it is not rare for an English word to have multiple meanings. It is more common than not. Just as an experiment I looked up the names of several objects in the room I'm in. I found 9 definitions for book, 6 for table, 8 for horse (a figurine not a real horse), and 5 for dragon (another figurine just in case you think my house is really strange). Many of those definitions were developed from the original use but they are nevertheless clearly distinct. I doubt you'll find a language where multiple meanings did not eventually develop for many of the words. Sincerely, Michael Abernathy On 5/6/2013 5:20 PM, K Randolph wrote: CAAEjU0tuuBt131jUn+Y0jRZZndHW4jb5wwif9KwwhekECuB+2g AT mail.gmail.com" type="cite"> |
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