“Wording Word” word “word”

[From the title we can see that word is caught between “Wording Word” and “word”.]

by Hubert Cua (1 of 5)


Many problems come from misunderstanding. Speakers may use a certain word to mean a certain meaning, but listeners misunderstand that certain word with another meaning. Relating this to what Heidegger says, which is “Being” as verb is different from “being” as noun, we can see how inaccurate some words are, especially the words with many meanings.

Let us take the word studying as an example. Dr. Garcia mentioned something like this in class. A student is not a student unless that student is studying. So when somebody asked us, “Are you studying?”, we can then asked ourselves, “What does he/she mean? Does he/she ask whether we are studying exactly at this second or not? Does he/she ask whether we are studying every day and/or every night or not? Does he/she ask whether we are studying at minimum effort or not? Does he/she ask whether we are studying at moderate effort or not? Does he/she ask whether we are studying at maximum effort or/not? Can studying effort be simply divided into minimum, moderate and maximum only? … …”

From these questions, we can see that words, like studying, are ambiguous and have subjective acceptance. The speaker may mean moderate effort, but the listener may mean maximum effort. We can also see the incommunicability of words. First, listeners usually do not further ask what the speakers mean, because of various reasons. Second, even if listeners further ask what the speakers mean and even if the speaker further explained, there is still a difference, even slightly, between what the speakers mean and what the listeners mean. We can also see how many things, not just words, are simplified. This is true from former techies to recent techies, from nationality in true sense to nationality in paper, from fine arts to abstract arts, from time in true sense to time in clock, from academic spellings to text spellings and many more. We can also see the openness to possibilities that results from simplification of words and/or complexities of words. Some words are too complex to the extent that we need to simplify them. We can also see that awareness of the nature of words is both a problem and a solution. It is a problem, because we need to exert more effort to understand words. It is also a solution, because we can use our awareness of the nature of words to prevent problems, like misunderstanding.