On 5/6/2013 6:51 PM, Michael Abernathy wrote:
> 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.
My favorite teaching example for demonstrating semantic range:
"The captain can run the ship with a run in her stocking while her crew
members run a race on the run on deck 10."