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Philipp Wettmann

TED Translator

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A word in a human language represents a fuzzy room of meaning, rather, than a sharply defined point.

I think in many conversattions on this website two or more contary opinions are right and people often try to argue for there position, either with groups, who use a different word for the same meaning, or with those, who use the same word for an other meaning. A slight shift in "meaning-space" can cause major artificial differences in opinion.

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Closing Statement from Philipp Wettmann

Thank you for your interesting contributions.
This conversation has shown, that the fuzzynes of human languages and specialy the english one can be bout a blessing and a curse.
You mentioned, that it is often possiple to make the effort to be more precise and that in most cases the context can help, but that at the other hand some people use, or abuse the unpecise meaning of words with intention.
Very interesting thank you.

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    Bruno Deshayes

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    Jun 27 2011: Words can be as precise as you want them to be. People choose to talk in shades of gray to influence others and draw them to their cause. Inducing your audience to see the benefits of your point of view while hiding the drawbacks of something they already oppose has been a time-worn negotiating tactic.
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      Philipp Wettmann

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      TED Translator
      Jun 28 2011: I would deny the first sentence, it is often not easy to speake precisely and in some cases not even possible either because it would take very much time, or because the information is not totaly compatible with language. For example most things we sense are rather unperfectly described by langage.

      On the other things you say, I agree with you.

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