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." Now, what does "run" mean? -- N.E. Barry Hofstetter The American Academy http://www.americanacademy.net The North American Reformed Seminary http://tnars.net Bible Translation Magazine http://bible-translation.net _______________________________________________ b-hebrew mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
